In a previous article, the topic was the plaques attached to the Pioneer 10 and 11 space probes. This post is about another cosmic message in a bottle, the Voyager Golden Records. As of this writing (March 18, 2007), the probes Voyager 1 and 2 are 101.957 AU and 82.529 AU from Earth. Depending on language use, “AU” or “u.a.” stands for Astronomical Unit, the distance of the semi-major axis (half of the major axis, the longest diameter of an eclipse) of Earth’s elliptical orbit around the Sun. The value of an AU unit is 149,597,870,691 +/- 30 m, about 150 km, or about 93 million miles. This puts Voyager 1 & 2 at about 9.5 billion miles (15.3 billion km) and 7.7 million miles (12.3 billion km) from Earth.
Aboard these two probes is a golden phonograph record that contains sounds and pictures from our planet. Below is a picture of the Voyager craft, at the center of the picture you can see the cover of the 12-inch Golden Record.
The cover is a instruction sheet for playing the record that is written in binary code and the spin movements of a hydrogen atom as the timing basis. This far more sophisticated message in a bottle presents has serious limitations as an effective way to communicate with intelligent life. Even if DJ Little Green Man is smart enough to figure out how to scratch out some tracks from this album over the alien airwaves, they may not have the visual or hearing abilities to process the sights and sounds, let alone understand what it’s on it.
Here’s here’s larger image of the cover diagram via Wikipedia’s Wikimedia feature.
However, it’s still a romantic idea and as President Jimmy Carter’s printed message on the record said: “We cast this message into the cosmos… Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some — perhaps many — may have inhabited planets and space faring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: We are trying to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope some day, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of Galactic Civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe.”
Here’s links to content if you are interested:
Images
Greetings in 55 languages
Music
Sounds of Earth
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Posted by Tim Roth, author of the political blog Think Anew and Act Anew
Sources:
1. Current location data from the probes Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, and last years launch of the New Horizons mission: Spacecraft escaping the Solar System”, Heavens Above website
2. “Astronomical Unit”, Wikipedia entry
3. “Voyager Golden Record”, Wikipedia entry