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I don't have the source cited to check whether this is the word originally used; but in the context of one possibility out of uncountably many in an event of vanishing likelihood, "realized" is (for me, at least,) a laugh-out-loud funny choice of words. She "speculated" or possibly, "considered," but in no way could her thought process be considered a realization.
"Spacecraft" is the plural and singular form. NASA doesn't use "spacecrafts." See also here and here. Mr. Billion 18:39, 1 May 2005 (UTC)Reply
According to the Voyager Golden Record article there is no such similar image. I propose to delete the paragraph above. --Etimbo | Talk 23:10, 26 May 2005 (UTC)Reply
There is no support for the statement that "none of the scientists that were shown the message were able to decode all of it." The reference/link is to some guy's blog, and there is no discussion of the point on that page. Telliott 12:05, 7 October 2007 (UTC)Reply
I believe that the author of that statement might be confusing the plaque with a SETI experiment where many head SETI scientists were given a "message" that was an example of what extraterrestrial communication might be like and none could figure out what it was based upon. Its "language" was based on the makeup of the hydrogen atom, arguably the most universal thing to base it on. I'd be hard pressed to find a scientist that hadn't heard of the plaques or seen them... Heck.. I'd be hard pressed to find someone with a vague understanding of science that didn't understand the plate. In any case.. The cite sucks. Cs302b (talk) 11:38, 17 January 2008 (UTC)Reply
"The Voyager Golden Record, a much more complex and detailed message using (then) state-of-the-art media, was attached to the Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977."
You expect the extraterrestrials to have DVD players? Yes, it was state of the art at the time, but the concept is nearly universal. You could put diagrams on a record showing how to use them (see what L. Ron Hubbard's followers are doing in underground vaults). You can't do so much with digital media. While state of the art at the time we'd do the same thing again if we were to try to send another similar probe into deep space. Cs302b (talk) 11:38, 17 January 2008 (UTC)Reply
The place to find the written criticism of the plaque is the Los Angeles Times editorial page, Letters to the Editor. The cartoonist Paul Conrad did a very nice satire on those letters with a man in a full business suit and fully dressed woman commenting that "Humans look just like us but not clothed." Have fun searching. 143.232.210.45 (talk) 22:53, 1 June 2010 (UTC)Reply
According to this article, the length of time it will take Pioneer 10 to come within 30 astronomical units of a star is longer than the current age of the galaxy. But according to the main article for Pioneer 10, it will take 2 million years to reach Aldebaran. The galaxy is a lot more than 2 million years old, so which statement is correct, and does anyone have a good original source for this info?
I seem to recall reading (or maybe Carl Sagan mentioned it on TV) at the time, that there was a conscious effort to blend all human racial features together, so that the humans represented would more accurately portray a typical human or at least an average. I also think that heights were averaged as well. Does anyone know anything about this, and how it was done? The man and woman as depicted do not seem to appear particularly African, Asian, or European. At the time, I believe this was controversial on two counts. First, assigning such features was seen as racist. And second, the so-called typical human ends up looking UNlike most humans. The typical human of the time would most probably be asian, if one goes entirely by share of the total population. Anyone recall this? Thanks. Jimaginator 16:08, 20 October 2005 (UTC)Reply
Carl Sagan and Linda Sagan tried to make the figures appear panracial by incorporating features from "three of the major races of mankind", (Sagan, 2009, pp. 25, para. 1). Both the man and the woman were given Caucasian features, but the woman was additionally given Asian features and the man was additionally given African features, (Sagan, 2009, pp. 25, para. 1). They added epicanthic folds to the woman, and they also gave her other Asian physical features which they did not specify, (Sagan, 2009, pp. 25, para. 1). They made the man have thick lips, a broad nose and an "Afro" haircut which was later changed to a "very non-African Mediterranean-curly haircut" in the finished engraving, (Sagan, 2009, pp. 25, para. 1). Carl Sagan said that both figures in the finished engraving looked blonde to many viewers due to only having their hair outlined rather than being both outlined and shaded, (Sagan, 2009, pp. 25, para. 1; Spangenburg & Moser, 2004, pp. 74, top). Despite the man's non-African hairstyle and the apparent blonde hair of both figures, Carl Sagan said that the figures in the finished engraving are "representative" of the "races of mankind" to a "significant degree", (Sagan, 2009, pp. 25, para. 1).
Will extraterrestrials understand that the man has had a shave and a haircut? Wetman 00:59, 14 Jun 2004 (UTC)
It says the Pioneer probes left the Solar System in the 1980s. In actual fact niether probe has yet done so. The only human built spacecraft currently beyond the solar system is Voyager 1. User:Tom walker 19 January 2006
What is the definition of the end of the Solar System? Does it have something to do with detectable particles from the Sun? If so, then the resolution of the detector is the factor. And, of course photons from the Sun would be detectable across the galaxy. Is it based upon some arbitrary distance from the Sun? Wouldn't the radiation of all types from different solar systems really just blend together, for example, Proxima's and our own? Jimaginator 21:06, 24 March 2006 (UTC)Reply
It has to do with the interaction of the solar wind and the interstellar medium. Also see the articles bow shock and termination shock. Rpresser 22:40, 24 March 2006 (UTC)Reply
Thanks. Jimaginator 18:52, 5 April 2006 (UTC)Reply
Taken from Wikipedia article termination shock - Evidence presented at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in May 2005 by Dr. Ed Stone suggests that the Voyager 1 spacecraft passed termination shock in December 2004, when it was about 94 AU from the sun, by virtue of the change in magnetic readings taken from the craft. In contrast, Voyager 2 began detecting returning particles when it was only 76 AU from the sun, in May 2006. This implies that the heliosphere may be irregularly shaped, bulging outwards in the sun's northern hemisphere and pushed inward in the south.[2]. From that i would infer that the end of the solar system would be either the edge of the suns heliosphere or the point of termination shock Whichever it is, both Voyager spacecraft are well out of our reach. As a side point, as a primary school student in Melbourne australia waaaaaaaaaay back in the early nineties, my school was lucky enough to get to go on camp to Canberra where we visited the Tidbinbilla tracking station. At that stage, if i remember correctly one or the other of the voyagers had only just past Pluto. Tidbinbilla was damn fascinating, ill have to go back up there again one day..... happy Wiki'ing --Squad'nLeedah 00:02, 2 November 2006 (UTC)Reply
One point. Is the hydrogen atom critical to the "understanding" of this plaque, because if it is, it's on the corner and so could easily get broken off in space. Hhhm, maybe I'm just imaginary an alien civilisation wondering what the hell is it, and looking at a plaque with a torn-off hydrogen atom... :P
It's not quite on the corner. Other symbols go higher and further to the left than it. Anyway, it's probably not going to break off if NASA expects it to outlast our sun and earth. Brianjd 14:12, 2005 Jan 29 (UTC)
Lol, it would be hilarious. They only expect it to out last the sun and earth because of it's trjectory. An alien race involved in an intergalatic war could spot it next week and blow it into smitherins tearing the space-time continume which consumes the universe destroying Earth only mintues after destroying the probe :O wolfie 08:20, 20 May 2006 (UTC) PS: I'm not a trekker and yes I have the tiniest shred of a clue about what a space time continium is...Reply
Well.. Your spelling lets us all know how intelligent you are.. And why, exactly, would shooting a dead spacecraft to "smitherins" cause the Universe to be destroyed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cs302b (talk • contribs) 05:57, 25 February 2008 (UTC)Reply
Should this very large PNG image be replaced by an SVG? I have used Inkscape to do the tracing and it came out rather well. Rpresser 20:38, 15 March 2006 (UTC)Reply
After a week, nobody has commented. I'm uploading the SVG and replacing the image. Rpresser 15:02, 22 March 2006 (UTC)Reply
Would anyone else like to see a 'corrected' version of this image? Specifically, the binary digits to the right of the woman have a blemish that breaks the first '0' into two smaller marks. I have an EPS (hand-traced) that corrects this flaw. JGarry (talk) 19:15, 20 April 2012 (UTC)Reply
Oh great, now with the redefinition of what a planet is, eliminating Pluto as a planet and leaving us with 8 planets, we're gonna have to get that plaque back and etch Pluto off there. After all, we don't want the aliens to think that we humans at one point actually considered Pluto a planet! Or, worse yet, they'll think the plaque came from another solar system just like ours, but with 9 clearly defined planets, and give the people from planet #3 the credit for creating that plaque that humanity so rightly deserves! I hope NASA is mounting a recovery mission as we speak!--Canuckguy 21:26, 25 August 2006 (UTC) (The preceding was meant as humour and not to be taken internally.)Reply
While theyre at it, they'd better appease the feminists and antiracists, make them multicoloured, make the female greet.... oh, and better add another male next to the male, and a woman next to the woman (to appease the homosexuals), oh, and perhaps a turban to appease the muslims, they look too christian... or catholic... or protestant, i cant tell, but its not a picture of me so im offended. Squad'nLeedah 23:03, 1 November 2006 (UTC) (Yes, im taking a dig at all that want to try and include every "controversy" that existed over this, you cant make everyone happy all the time. get over it people :P )Reply
Shouldn't the featured picture (the actual plaque, not the illustration) be the main picture? --MosheA 01:41, 4 December 2006 (UTC)Reply
The sentence above is a bit ambigious. I'm not sure whether the sentence is saying it will never reach another planet before the galaxy dies or that it will, but it will take a long time. Also what is the talk of "mean time". Is its path not known? Is it not known which star it will reach first? If not, why? As a lay reader, this makes no sense. It should be changed to something like (obviously changed by someone with subject knowledge) "The spacecraft has been travelling for 20 years. Although it is not known which star it will first meet (due to galactic rotation) the mean time of travel for the spacecraft to come within 30 astronomical units of a star is 330,000,000 years. This is longer than the current age of the galaxy. The galaxy would be dead/very old/still young at this point". Thanks - PocklingtonDan 09:17, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
Regarding the 14 pulsars, the article says: "A tick mark at the end of each line gives the Z coordinate perpendicular to the galactic plane." What does this mean? Llajwa 00:13, 9 October 2007 (UTC)Reply
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It's ridiculous how the NASA used a so posh hairstyle with the guy's picture. The woman looks more universal, less ethnocentric. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.180.147.32 (talk) 16:44, 28 April 2009 (UTC)Reply
I tried to find a reference for this "conference in Crimea", without success. There was, however, a conference on "Communication with extraterrestrial intelligence" in September 1971 which was held in Yerevan, Armenia, for which Sagan edited the proceedings and contributed a number of talks. I suspect that this is the conference that is refered to in the history section, not one "in" Crimea. --Wrongfilter (talk) 17:57, 20 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
Is the trajectory of both craft similar enough so one plaque is identical to the other, or is there a slight difference in the plaques? 206.8.2.246 (talk) 01:38, 31 July 2010 (UTC)Reply
Er, did Sagan or anyone at NASA consider what the consequences might be if the finders of such material weren't upholding Gene Roddenberry's vision of galactic goodwill? I mean if Earth's own natural environments are anything to go by, I can only conclude there is no reason not to assume that nature in space is pretty much different. Things evolve to either prey on other things or to avoid being the prey of other things. What happens if this plaque falls into the "wrong hands"? We are after all made out of the same fleshy substance that makes cows and pigs so damn tasty! This article concerns itself with all the wonderful nuances and inner charm this plaque might bring to an alien species but were any dangers also factored into these discussions?
This might seem like a stupid question (since I'm not good at maths and codes) but the most important thing I don't understand about the used binary code is this: I know from the wikipedia entry that 0 is expressed as - , 1 as I and that 8 is for example expressed as I---; But apart from whole numbers, how are decimals or powers expressed? I guess they have to be used because else large numbers would have a very long code, right?
Apart from that I'm not even really sure how whole numbers work out; For example: is - , I , I- , II , I-- = 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ? What then are 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 expressed like; respectively: what (if anything) do I- and -I represent?
I guess since most people don't know that stuff any better, it might actually be very informative to add a short section on how exactly that encoding system works out in practice! This is the single most important issue on how to improve this otherwise very good entry that is apparent to me.
Plus: If anybody would be so nice to do that, please don't forget to add the same in the entry on the Voyager Plaque (which uses the same code)!
I believe that there is a small error in the distance of Uranus as indicated on the plaque: Uranus: 111101111 binary = 495 decimal * 0,4 AU * 0,1 = 19,8 AU, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system#Outer_planets states that the distance of Uranus is 19.6 AU, which should give a value of about 510 decimal = 111111110.
The other distances check out nicely. Supermagle (talk) 12:10, 20 September 2010 (UTC)Reply
I was on the BBC site which has an incredibly easy to understand take on this plaque - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11798317. IMHO this is very easy to understand when compared to the current wiki article (although granted the article gives much more detail into elements making up the maths of the message). Would be grand if the article could adopt a similar point-by-point description. Just a thought. And before some clever dick says "Why don't you do it, then" this isn't my area of expertise, hence posting here for others to feedback. Londonclanger (talk) 13:56, 22 November 2010 (UTC)Reply
I read the source cited that both pioneer 10 and 11 carry the plaque, it only refers to pioneer 10 carrying it. Should this be corrected? does someone have a source otherwise? Isador1500 (talk) 23:44, 12 December 2017 (UTC)Reply
In the subsection Figures of a man and a woman it says "the binary representation of the number 8 can be seen (1000, with a small defect in the first zero)". Is this defect intentional? If not, is there an explanation as to how it got there and why it wasn't corrected? And is it on both the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 plaques? I cannot find any information about this defect and it seems a rather important issue. Lexicon (talk) 17:28, 23 November 2020 (UTC)Reply