Woah something just hit me...
- Lazarus wrote:
- You will need: ... A Cepheid variable star. Getting your hands on one of these might be tricky - the nearest ones are Polaris (which seems to have various oddities which might make it unsuitable for this kind of thing) at 400 light years...
- Lazarus wrote:
- This would allow you to modulate the Cepheid's variability in order to transmit messages, and simultaneously really irritate any astronomers in neighbouring civilisations who are still trying to get the cosmic distance scale figured out.
Of course! Lazarus, I think you might have inadvertently discovered the cause of Polaris' oddities
More seriously though. I'm sure any civilisation with this capability would have figured out more efficient ways of communicating.
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Caps Lock: Cruise control for 'Cool'!