i thought its a space

If you are not sure what it is then you could try to find out with something like this.

$ perl -e '
> $string = qq{P\0A\0T\0C\0H\0I\0N\0S\0T\0};
> printf( qq{0x%02x: %s\n}, ord, $_ ) for split m{}, $string;'
0x50: P
0x00: 
0x41: A
0x00: 
0x54: T
0x00: 
0x43: C
0x00: 
0x48: H
0x00: 
0x49: I
0x00: 
0x4e: N
0x00: 
0x53: S
0x00: 
0x54: T
0x00: 
$
[download]

I hope this is of use.