Juicy!

Pioneer Plaque

This is the plaque that was placed on the 1972 Pioneer 10 and 1973 Pioneer 11 spacecraft:

It is designed to show scientifically educated inhabitants of some other star system, who might intercept it millions of years from now, when Pioneer was launched, from where, and by what kind of beings (With the hope that they would not invade Earth).

I can get about as far as deciphering the species, but I think that I have a slight advantage over ‘some other scientifically educated inhabitants of another star system’.  What do you think?  How good is your atomic/astro physics Juicers? (That’s your big HINT).

Full descripton of the plaque’s symbolism, after the jump.

“The Pioneer F spacecraft, destined to be the first human made object to escape from the solar system into interstellar space, carries this pictorial plaque. It is designed to show scientifically educated inhabitants of some other star system, who might intercept it millions of years from now, when Pioneer was launched, from where, and by what kind of beings (With the hope that they would not invade Earth). The design is etched into a 6 inch by 9 inch gold-anodized aluminum plate, attached to the spacecraft’s attenna support struts in a position to help shield it from erosion by interstellar dust. The radiating lines at left represents the positions of 14 pulsars, a cosmic source of radio energy, arranged to indicate our sun as the home star of our civilization. The “1-” symbols at the ends of the lines are binary numbers that represent the frequencies of these pulsars at the time of launch of Pioneer F relative of that to the hydrogen atom shown at the upper left with a “1″ unity symbol. The hydrogen atom is thus used as a “universal clock,” and the regular decrease in the frequencies of the pulsars will enable another civilization to determine the time that has elapsed since Pioneer F was launched. The hydrogen is also used as a “universal yardstick” for sizing the human figures and outline of the spacecraft shown on the right. The hydrogen wavelength, about 8 inches, multiplied by the binary number representing “8″ shown next to the woman gives her height, 64 inches. The figures represent the type of creature that created Pioneer. The man’s hand is raised in a gesture of good will. Across the bottom are the planets, ranging outward from the Sun, with the spacecraft trajectory arching away from Earth, passing Mars, and swinging by Jupiter.” Source: http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-001623.html

From Wikipedia

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One Response to “Pioneer Plaque”

  1. October 17th, 2009 at 1:43 pm

    choof says:

    They later expanded upon the amount of information available with the 1977 launch of Voyager, recording it on the golden record.

    Wikipedia regarding the contents of the record:

    The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind, and thunder, and animal sounds, including the songs of birds and whales. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, spoken greetings in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Jimmy Carter and U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim.

    They also included 115 images of various things ranging from our anatomy & cultures to our technologies. They caught some flack due to the nude depictions of humans with the Pioneer plaque, so they made it safe for work this time. The “album art” is seen here.

    You can see the 115 images here.
    You can listen to the sounds here.

    There’s some pretty interesting stuff on there, and with the recent news that Voyager has passed into the heliosheath, we’re closer than ever to be hurling our information through deep space. If any intelligent beings ever find this in the future, here’s to hoping we’re still around.

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