Yvan Dutil of the Defence Research Establishment Valcartier, Quebec sent a 4 hour message from a powerful Russian radio-telescope out to the aliens on May 24th this year. If you look at the bottom of http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/astrobiology/img/letslearn2.jpg you can see the Mersenne Prime 2^3021377-1. Strangely it's representation implies decimal and there is no symbol for exponentiation (except by position). And it is the second largest, why not the record holder? I'm sure it is chosen because it implies the transmitter's intelligence. Let's hope that a reflection of it isn't picked up by SETI@Home. Full story at:- http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/astrobiology/letslearn.jsp I'm sure there are Pulsars out there transmitting to us larger Mersennes - in binary. Cheers, Paul Landon _________________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
