Plate of Pioneer

The space probes Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 embarked on their board a plate, called plate of Pioneer , comprising a pictorial message of the Humanité intended for possible extraterrestrial beings. On this engraved metal plate a Homme and a naked Femme are represented, like several Symbole S providing of information on the origin of the probes.

It acts in fact of a kind of “bottle to the interstellar sea ”, the chances so that it is found being extremely weak. Moreover, from here so that one of the probes arrives at less than 30 astronomical units of another star, it will have run out more time than since the birth of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

The Pioneer probes were the first objects built by the human ones to leave the solar system. The plates are attached to the probes so as to protect them from the erosion of the interstellar dust; so that NASA expects that the plate (and itself probes it) survives longer than the Ground and the Sun.

A more detailed and evolved/moved message, the To travel Golden delicious Record , is embarked in the shape of a disc videonumeric by the probes Voyager, launched in 1977.

History

The original idea, that which the probe should diffuse a message of humanity, was mentioned the first time by Eric Burgess when he visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of Pasadena during the mission Mariner 9 ( to see Programme Marinading ). With Richard Hoagland, it approached Carl Sagan which had spoken about the communication with extraterrestrial intelligences with a conference in the Crimea.

Sagan was enthusiastic with the idea to send a message with the space probe Pioneer . NASA was of agreement and gave him three weeks to prepare a message. With Frank Drake, it designed the plate and the drawing was created by his wife Linda Salzman Sagan.

The first plate was launched with the Pioneer 10 the March 2nd 1972 and the second with the Pioneer 11 the April 5th 1972. The two probes left the solar system in the years 1980.

Characteristics

Matter: Aluminum and Gold (with Anodization);
Width: 229 mm;
Height: 152 mm;
Thickness: 1,27 mm;
Depth of engraving: 0,381 Misters

Symbolic system

Emission line of neutral hydrogen

In top on the left of the plate a diagrammatic representation of the hyperfine transition from the Hydrogène is, which is the most abundant element in the Univers.

In lower part of this symbol, there is a small vertical line to represent the binary character 1. Thanks to the Spin of the hydrogen atom, that can indicate a unit of length (wavelength, 21 centimetres) as well as a unit of time (frequency, 1420 megahertz). The two units are employed like measures to the other symbols.

Representations of the man and the woman

On the right-sided of the plate a man and a woman are. A binary representation (figure 8) of the size of the woman is also visible. Thanks to the units of length of wave of the hyperfine transition from hydrogen this means 8 × 21 centimetres = 168 centimetres; what is the intermediate size of a woman.

The right hand of the man is raised as a sign of hello. Although it is not very probable that this gesture is really universal, it makes it possible to show the opposable inch and the articulation of the members.

One can see that the genitals of the woman are not really depicted; only the Mons veneris is shown.

Representation of the probe

Behind the representation of the human beings, the silhouette of the probe Pioneer is visible. It is shown in same the scale, so that the size of the human beings can be deduced starting from the size from the space probe.

Position relative of the Sun to the center of the galaxy and 14 pulsars

The plate shows, on the left side, fifteen lines coming from the same origin. Fourteen of the lines are long binary numbers corresponding to the periods of the Pulsar S. Since these periods change according to time, the time of launching can be calculated starting from these values. The lengths of the lines show the distances relative from pulsars to the Sun. The position of the Earth can thus be calculated by Triangulation, even if only some of pulsars are identified. One of the lines is prolonged towards the line behind the characters; it indicates the distance relating to the center of the Galaxie.

Solar system

With the bottom of the plate a diagrammatic diagram of the Solar system is. A small image of the probe is shown leaving out of the solar system.

The rings of Saturn give another index to identify the solar system.

The numbers Binaire S beside planets show their distances relating to the Sun. The unit is 1/10e Orbite of Mercure.

Criticisms

The message was considered to be too much anthropocentric and too complicated to include/understand by criticisms. Although the purpose of it was to transmit a maximum of information in a minimal space, rather than to be easily read, the majority of the scientists to which it was presented were unable to entirely decode it.

According to Frank Drake, there were many negative reactions on this plate, mainly because the human ones were represented naked. The Los Angeles Times received letters of dissatisfied readers showing NASA to spend the money of the contrituable to send “obscenities” in space.

See too

Sources

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