Launched in 1977, this human-made object is the only one to have left our solar system. Even more incredible, it carries a fundamental message on board, designed specifically for extraterrestrials. We tell you this crazy story...
For decades, Humanity has been multiplying space exploration missions: Perseverance, Curiosity, Cassini-Huygens... Yet, communication with aliens remains futile...
Faced with the great silence of civilizations extraterrestrials, scientists have reversed the logic: what if, instead of waiting for a signal, we sent a message? Building on the experience of the Pioneer 10 and 11 probes, NASA decided to go further with an object carrying an even more ambitious message. Launched more than 45 years ago, this sort of ambassador of Humanity has left the solar system and, above all, it carries a crucial message designed specifically for aliens…
Read also: the first sign of life has just been detected on another planet, it's a historic moment for humanity
A universal time capsule for aliens
Humanity has always sought to pass on its heritage. More than 2,600 years ago, Assarhaddon, king of Assyria, already pointed out that the foundations of the monuments he had erected contained inscriptions engraved for future times. But future generations still need to understand them...
To do this, scientists have looked into the content and form that a sort of interstellar time capsule could take. They started from the principle that all space travel requires a mastery of science, which makes it a universal language:
- The most common element in the Universe is hydrogen and its electron appears as a common unit of time with extraterrestrials (it changes direction of rotation at a constant rate).
- Also, for the message to be read, the instructions given are in symbolic, schematic, and binary language.
- And the message itself is notably coded in analog form.
- To survive a journey of billions of years in space: the material used to transmit the message is an aluminum lid "coated by electrodeposition with an ultra-pure sample of uranium 238, an isotope with a half-life of 4.468 billion years" according to NASA.
The launch of the Voyager 1 and 2 probes is planned for 1977. Their main mission? To observe the giant planets at the edge of the solar system. On the assumption that they might encounter extraterrestrial civilizations there, NASA approved the creation of the Golden Record.
Voyager 1 and 2: Earth's legacy summarized in a golden record
But once this mission was adopted, an existential question arose: what to put on this record? NASA decided to set up a commission chaired by astronomer Carl Sagan. The objective? To determine the elements that would best summarize what Humanity is in all its complexity. After months of work, it was decided, the Voyager Golden Record would contain:
- 115 diverse images: children from the 1970s, diagrams to find the Earth in the Universe, and even sex education lessons. Obviously, there are no traces of war images; it's better to pass for peaceful when you don't know into the hands of which potential extraterrestrial civilization this record will fall...
- Natural sounds representative of the Earth: waves, rain, birds, whales and other animals...
- A 90-minute eclectic musical selection, from jazz to rock, including classical and traditional music.
- Oral greetings in 55 languages, from Akkadian spoken nearly 6,000 years ago, to English, including Wu, a modern Chinese dialect.
This 30 cm gold-plated copper disc is protected by an aluminum sleeve, containing a cartridge and a needle. It includes instructions for listening to its contents, finding Earth in the cosmos and dating its stay in space.
Voyager Golden Record: A Message in a Bottle
Voyager 1 left the solar system in 2012 and before it approaches another planetary system, it will probably be nearly 40,000 years. And Carl Sagan noted: "The probe will only be encountered and the record will only be played if there are advanced space-faring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launch of this bottle into the cosmic ocean brings hope for life on this planet."
Currently, the two probes are more than 20 billion kilometers from Earth and are still communicating with scientists. But by 2030, their atomic piles will stop. This will mark the beginning of a spatial drift close to eternity, or at least several billion years, according to astrophysicist Marc Swisdal.
The Voyager Golden Record continues to inspire the scientific community. Astrophysicist Jonathan H. Jiang's team hopes to include the Message in the Bottle (MIAB) project in its legacy. In the article "Message in a Bottle — An Update to the Golden Record" available on arXiv, the scientists present MIAB as an effective way to transmit the heritage of Humanity and all its complexity via universally interpretable symbolic communication for possible alien civilizations at least as advanced as ours – and notably as an anticipation of potential events linked to the Great Filter hypothesis.
Perhaps one day, in another star system, these discs will find their audience and thus allow Humanity's legacy to continue... But in the meantime, if Humanity sent a Golden Record back to the far reaches of the solar system today: what would it contain?
Source: NASA
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