Sending a Message

A group of scientists and musicians is trying to start a conversation over the back fence. The team sent messages to a star system that’s about 12 light-years away. As stars go, that’s right next door. The first messages went out two years ago tomorrow. So if anybody’s there, and is in a talkative mood, their reply could reach us as early as 2042.
GJ 273 is a red dwarf — a star that’s much smaller and fainter than the Sun. It was picked as a target because it has a planet in the “Goldilocks zone.” That’s the distance from the star where temperatures are just right for liquid water — a key ingredient for life.
Astronomers have beamed signals to a few other stars over the last few decades. But this was the first one aimed at a star that’s known to have a planet that could be habitable.
The message was put together by scientists and by participants in a music festival in Spain. It consists of an interstellar “hello,” along with instructions for deciphering the message — all done with math