Voyager 1 and the Golden Record
The farthest human object from Earth; over 14.8 billion miles away and counting.
Click here for today’s Wikipedia article of discussion
45 years after NASA launched it into outer space, Voyager 1’s mission is still ongoing. It was originally intended to be for taking pictures and learning more about our neighboring planets and their moons. But due to a specific arrangement of the planets, they were able to use the orbits of each planet to propel Voyager 1 from one planet to the next, gaining speed, and then being sent out of our solar system, forever.
It’s been said by many that Voyager 1 will probably outlast humanity. With nothing in outer space to disturb the probe, the contents that are held within the probe may last long enough to be our first communication with extraterrestrial life. If aliens were to find it, that is.
What communicable contents are contained in Voyager 1, you ask? Well, Voyager 1 contains a Golden Record which has instructions that should, in theory, be able to be read by intelligent extraterrestrial life on how to play it. Michael from Vsauce made an amazing video explaining how the Golden Record’s contents are stored.
To see the images NASA decided to share with extraterrestrial life, check out this video by Vox, which shows you the types of pictures that NASA shared. Photos of oceans, people, food, hunting, shelter, math, and more. Showing the beauty of Humanity, in 116 images.
To learn how an intelligent lifeform would go about reading the instructions, check out this video by Verge Science, who decode the Golden Record just as an alien would.
Read on in today’s Wikipedia article in the link below!
Click here for today’s Wikipedia article of discussion
Today, Feb 9, in history
1855 - Hoof-like marks in the snow along the countryside of Devon England were discovered. Known as The Devil’s Footprints
1932 - Prohibition law becomes abolished in Finland after 70% of voters voted for a repeal of the law.
1870 - US president Ulysses S. Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress establishing the U.S Weather Bureau.
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