In 1972, NASA launched the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. It is the first probe to cross the asteroid belt and reach the planet Jupiter. That was the main objective of their mission. This March 2 marked the 52nd anniversary of the Pioneer probe in space.
The ship continued on its way to the edge of the Solar System. But contact with it was lost in 2003 when it was 12,000 million kilometers from Earth. Currently, the ship is heading towards the star Aldebaran, in the constellation of Taurus. It will arrive there in 1,690,000 years.
Message in a Bottle
What makes this ship famous is that it contains a plaque inscribed with a symbolic message. This informs the extraterrestrial civilization that could intercept the probe about the human being and his place of origin, Earth. It's a kind of interstellar “message in a bottle.” This plate was made of gold anodized aluminum. This element has certain properties that cause it to degrade minimally.
The image of the probe appears on the plate to the right. What is the purpose of this? Give proportion to the two human figures drawn in front, one female and the other male.
On the left, there is a bundle of lines that radiate from the same point. That point is planet Earth. The lines indicate the direction of the most significant pulsars close to our solar system. And in each one, in a binary numbering system, the pulse sequence of each one. This section constitutes our “domicile” in the universe. A technically advanced civilization, with knowledge of pulsars, could interpret the plaque.
At the bottom a diagram of the solar system is represented. It includes the planets arranged according to their distance from the Sun and with an indication of the initial route of Pioneer 10.
traveling plate
The spin of a hydrogen molecule is shown, also with indications in binary system. It is the most common element in the universe.
The 52 years of the Pioneer probe in space bring us the memory of this plaque. It was designed and popularized by the American astronomer and scientific popularizer Carl Sagan. The American astronomer Frank Drake also collaborated. They were drawn by Linda Salzman Sagan.
