u/Alone_Detective3233

pulsars are rotating neutron stars that emit extremely regular pulses, some so precise they rival atomic clocks. because of that, they can act like universal timing references that any advanced civilization could detect.

Instead of encoding a message in a specific frequency, we could encode it in timing:

• slightly early pulse = 0
• slightly late pulse = 1

or even use timing differences between multiple pulsars to create more complex signals.

it has some cool advantages:

• no need to agree on units like seconds, since pulsars provide a natural time standard
• using multiple pulsars can encode location
• structured timing patterns (like primes) would clearly stand out as artificial

we could use the pulsar as a timing reference and encode signals with it, information is encoded in tiny timing offests. We only manipulate our own transmitted signal timing