Only light crosses
Nobody is coming, and nobody is going. Neither we nor they can build a ship for 11.01 light years. Contact means messages.
The Book of InterImm · Interstellar
Phase 2 · from 2219
Joining the conversation between the stars.
In 2219 the solar system heard another civilisation for the first time. No ship can cross that distance, theirs or ours. What crosses is light, so this is the era in which humanity learns to write to the stars.
How it started
A signal from Ross 128 b
On 2219-09-18 the pulsar-timing nodes of the MC ledger, on the Moon, Earth, Mars and Ceres, all logged the same narrow tone at the frequency of hydrogen. The small delays between them pointed at one star: Ross 128, a red dwarf in Virgo 11.01 light years away, with one temperate rocky planet. The pulses counted out prime numbers; the bits after them folded into a picture.
It was made public on 2219-10-05. The full record, with the data to decode yourself, is in the archive.
- Source
- Ross 128 b · M4V
- Distance
- 11.01 ly
- Light left them
- 2209
- Days since
- –
The era
What changes now
Every sentence takes a decade
A question and its answer are 22 years apart. Conversations outlive the people who start them, and need institutions that remember.
The sky may be busier than it sounds
One voice found us. It is hard to believe it is the only one out there, or that everyone else is as slow as we are.
Timeline
The long correspondence
Story calendar: real time plus 70,491 days.
The light leaves Ross 128
Eleven years before anyone hears it.
Every ledger hears it
The MC ledger's pulsar clocks pick up the tone. The full record.
Made public
All raw recordings released on the same day.
A reply sent today arrives
Anything written now reaches them on this date.
The earliest possible answer
If they reply the moment our letter lands.
More voices
To be continued.
Records and instruments
Go deeper
Archive
The 2219 signal
The log of the first days, who heard it when, and the beacon to fold yourself.
Open →
Letters
Write back
Write to Ross 128 b and watch your letter travel, kilometre by kilometre.
Open →
Live
Pulsar ledger
The pulsars that keep the MC clock, ticking live, and the timing residuals where the signal first showed up.
Open →
For builders
Phase 2 design kit
137: the shared look of every phase 2 site, named for the number both worlds share and drawn in the pixels of their picture.
Open →