If any intelligent life does find these records - which many scientists predict is possible in this vast Universe of ours - then the human minds have already sorted the problem for this scenario...
THE FINAL FRONTIER
Undoubtedly, exploration has always remained a trait of mankind. After having explored all the parts of the home we’ve ever known – the planet Earth - we focused our attention to the skies. Of course, we had sent radio signals into outer space for nearly a century, but that happened before the advent of the space probes.
In the 1970s, the Americans tried something very special. Carl Sagan, the great American astronomer, came up with this idea of sending space probes on a one-way mission into outer space, known as the ‘Voyager Program’. In order to ensure that these space probes were received by any possible aliens out there, or any other extra-terrestrial intelligent life, they contained some fascinating content (as a friendly gesture). Scientists and astronomers had put many interesting items in the space crafts, which took about a year to conceive, assemble and organize. In this text, we will specifically talk about the content present inside the Voyagers.
To continue, let us first discuss the following questions: What did they contain? What exactly is meant by content? How was it all made possible? Here goes:
Voyager Golden Records
Basically, the spacecrafts contained the “Voyager Golden Records”- in the form of sounds and images - portraying the diversity and culture of life on planet Earth. It was actually a 12-inch gold-plated disk and was made in such a way that any intelligent life could easily decipher the information on it. For example, scientists added a wide array of natural sounds, including that of winds, thunderstorms, sand, rain, etc. to the Voyager Golden Records. In addition, they also added the sounds of different animals, singers, kids, various types of languages and pronunciations, and any imaginable sound that you can possibly think of! Moreover, they also added a lot of images; these included the pictures of various landscapes, famous personalities, the Solar System and its planets, scientific and mathematical quantities, and so on.
The selection of these sounds and images was done with the help of, as mentioned earlier, a lot of scientific research. Carl Sagan who, back then, was in Cornell University (CU) in USA, also played a leading role in the selection processes.
Other than these images and sounds, there were several other strange things placed on the spacecrafts, like a printed message from the then U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, and a popular inspirational Latin message which goes as follows: Per aspera ad astra. Translated into English, it means: Through hardships to the stars. However, it was written in a different language - or perhaps code - called the Morse code.
Moving onwards, the two main reasons why these records were created are as follows:
a. To have contact with intelligent extra-terrestrial life (if any), present in the entire universe.
b. Made as a time-capsule, so that the next generations, or people from the future, have a better understanding of the past, which the scientific historians and archaeologists, etc. could figure out later.
A few more questions arise here, that is, of course, if a possibility occurs, as discussed ahead: what if aliens or any other intelligent life forms do actually find these records? How will they track its origin, i.e., planet Earth and communicate with us? How will they know our cosmic address?
If any intelligent life does find these records - which many scientists predict is possible in this vast Universe of ours - then the human minds have already sorted the problem for this scenario. In this particular scenario, the finders will be provided with a step-by-step guide to decipher the encoded message in the spacecraft. The readers will then be easily able to find the cosmic address of planet Earth, a pale blue dot in the vast expanse of the Universe, as Sagan would prefer to say. Additionally, they’ll be able to communicate with us through various other ways, all of these things predefined for the potential finders of the records. However, in recent studies, many scientific researchers have found out that these records are not helpful in the sense that the encoded messages in them are difficult to decipher for an extra-terrestrial civilization. If so, then it is quite disappointing, to say the least.
Voyager’s technology is very old, as it is from the 1970s, which is obsolete in contrast to today’s modern technology. Today, we have got much better and robust technology compared to those times, but the priorities of humankind have immensely changed. The acceptability of space research and search for ET in the old days was much higher on global scale compared to today. This is very unfortunate, because humankind can still set its priorities right and explore our Universe in a more meaningful way. I believe that the passion for space exploration can return to us if we create more awareness among the masses, especially the children of this new generation. Voyager’s journey is one step towards this exploration, and humankind should have made numerous more steps in the past decades.
Will these records be ever found?
The Voyager spacecrafts are hardly outside the solar system; they are in interstellar space. An ET life which could detect such a (comparatively) small spacecraft beyond Pluto can easily detect a much larger Earth a few billion miles from it. Hence, I think that it will take time, tens of thousands of years before it can possibly be detected by ET life. For that, too, the ET life has to be in the nearest star systems.
In addition, for a size comparison, we can’t detect large rocks and meteorites in the Earth’s vicinity, and there’s always a possibility that an undetected rock may fall on Earth and wreaks havoc. This spacecraft is comparatively far, far away and much smaller. So, detecting it would be very tricky. Having said that, ET life may have far more advanced technology for detection as compared to ours.
In the ending, I would say that only time will tell us everything. So let us wait patiently, and consider improving existing technologies further rather than relying on the previous ones. The scientific community must not give up and work harder, so that we can find the answers we seek!
