Group Activity 2
Due in class Friday, Nov. 22.

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Imagine that the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has detected three signals from a star that is 12 pc away. Astronomers have not detected any planet around this star, although they have looked. Of course that could mean that any planet just is not within our detection limits. There have been three separate messages which appear slightly different. Encryption experts have not been able to understand the message as there seems to be no cipher, but they are definately artificial signals, and not a random process. They are some sort of digital data stream that is base 18 and each lasted a total of 72 seconds. The second message was detected roughly 12 hours after the first message and the third message was detected about 2 days and 2 hours after the second one. Oddly, these messages appear to come from a star which is near to the direction in which the Arecibo Observatory sent a message in 1974.

As science advisors to the President, it is your job to file a report outlining a course of action for this country. The report should be:

• no more than 4 pages, double-spaced and include the following:
• What we know (there is in fact a lot of information in that first paragraph; investigate!),
• what we don't know,
• and what we should do. Be sure to justify your solution.
• Include everyone's name, alphabetically by last name.
• List each person and their contribution at the end under a section titled, "Contributions". (Not included in the 4 page limit.)
• Do not include a cover page.
• Be sure to have your names typed (no hand writing on the report) and pages stapled together before you come to class. A stapler will not be provided in the classroom.
• A list of references (web pages are fine) if you use any.

• This is a group paper, so no individual papers will be accepted. No partial group papers will be accepted (so no splitting the group).
• Turn in 1 paper for each group.

Some possible options include:

• Ignore it.
• Invest in rocket technology to make rockets fast enough to travel there (even if it takes more than 100 years to make rockets fast enough).
• Reply immediately (what should the message contain?).
• Invest in the millitary to protect our solar system from imminent invasion.
  But please only think of these as suggestions. Your own unique solutions are quite welcome.