The illustration on the Pioneer plaque

The Pioneer plaques are a pair of aluminum plaques which were placed on board the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft, featuring a pictorial message from humanity, in case either Pioneer 10 or 11 are intercepted by extraterrestrial beings. The plaques show the nude figures of a human male and female along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft. Image File history File links Pioneer_plaque. ... Image File history File links Pioneer_plaque. ... General Name, Symbol, Number aluminium, Al, 13 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 13, 3, p Appearance silvery Standard atomic weight 26. ... A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, is a plate of metal attached to a wall or other vertical surface and bearing text in memory of an important figure or event. ... Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, and was the first spacecraft to make direct observations of Jupiter. ... Position of Pioneer 10 and 11 Pioneer 11 was the second mission to investigate Jupiter and the outer solar system and the first to explore the planet Saturn and its main rings. ... The Space Shuttle Discovery as seen from the International Space Station. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Human Race could be: The Human race. ...

The Pioneer spacecraft were the first human-built objects to leave the solar system. The plaque is attached to the antenna support struts in a position that shields it from erosion by stellar dust. Major features of the Solar System (not to scale; from left to right): Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, the asteroid belt, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and its Moon, and Mars. ... A Yagi-Uda beam antenna Short Wave Curtain Antenna (Moosbrunn, Austria) A building rooftop supporting numerous dish and sectored mobile telecommunications antennas (Doncaster, Victoria, Australia) An antenna is a transducer designed to transmit or receive radio waves which are a class of electromagnetic waves. ... A strut is a structural component designed to resist longitudinal compression. ... Space Dust Space Dust is the dust thats floating in space. ...

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. The Voyager Golden Record. ... Voyager Project redirects here. ...

The plaque attached to Pioneer 10

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (960x591, 72 KB)Pioneer F Plaque cropped http://grin. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (960x591, 72 KB)Pioneer F Plaque cropped http://grin. ...

History

The original idea, that the Pioneer spacecraft should carry a message from mankind, was first mentioned by Eric Burgess when he visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California during the Mariner 9 mission. Together with Richard Hoagland, he approached Dr. Carl Sagan, who had lectured about communication with extraterrestrial intelligences at a conference in Crimea. Eric Burgess is a freelance consultant, lecturer and journalist, who has written about the Pioneer program of space missions since the first tests in 1957. ... For the singer/songwriter, see Jon Peter Lewis. ... Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Mariner 9 launch Mariner 9 was a NASA space probe orbiter that helped in the exploration of Mars and was part of the Mariner program. ... Richard C. Hoagland (born April 25, 1945) is a propounder of theories on astronomical topics that are considered offbeat by many mainstream astronomers. ... Insert non-formatted text here Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer and astrobiologist and a highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics, and other natural sciences. ... “Green people” redirects here. ... Motto: Процветание в единстве - Prosperity in unity Anthem: Нивы и горы твои волшебны, Родина - Your fields and mounts are wonderful, Motherland Location of Crimea (red) on the map of Ukraine. ...

Dr. Sagan was enthusiastic about the idea of sending a message with the Pioneer spacecraft. NASA agreed to the plan and gave him three weeks to prepare a message. Together with Dr. Frank Drake he designed the plaque, and the artwork was prepared by Sagan's then wife Linda Salzman Sagan. Professor Frank Drake Frank Drake (born May 28, 1930, Chicago, Illinois) is an American astronomer and astrophysicist. ... Linda Salzman Sagan (b. ...

The first plaque was launched with Pioneer 10 on March 2, 1972, and the second followed with Pioneer 11 on April 5, 1973. Both spacecraft left the solar system in the 1980s. is the 61st day of the year (62nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... April 5 is the 95th day of the year (96th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. ...

The actual plaque

Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (2891x2290, 387 KB) version with white background Authors: Designed by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (2891x2290, 387 KB) version with white background Authors: Designed by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake. ...

Physical properties

• Material: 6061 T6 gold-anodized aluminum
• Width: 229 mm (9 inches)
• Height: 152 mm (6 inches)
• Thickness: 1.27 mm (0.05 inches)
• Mean depth of engraving: 0.381 mm (0.015 inches)
• Weight: approx. 0.120 kilograms

These inexpensive carabiners have an anodised aluminium surface that has been dyed and are made in many colors. ... General Name, Symbol, Number aluminium, Al, 13 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 13, 3, p Appearance silvery Standard atomic weight 26. ... Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. ...

Symbolism

Hyperfine transition of neutral hydrogen

Hyperfine transition of neutral hydrogen

At the top left of the plate is a schematic representation of the hyperfine transition of hydrogen, which is the most abundant element in the universe. Below this symbol is a small vertical line to represent the binary digit 1. This spin-flip transition of a hydrogen atom from electron state spin up to electron state spin down can specify a unit of length (wavelength, 21 cm) as well as a unit of time (frequency, 1420 MHz). Both units are used as measurements in the other symbols. Note that since the plaque is 229 mm wide, the actual unit of length could have been depicted, although it wasn't. Pioneer plaque - Hyperfine transition of hydrogen NASA Image of the Pioneer plaque. ... Pioneer plaque - Hyperfine transition of hydrogen NASA Image of the Pioneer plaque. ... Hyperfine structure is a small perturbation in the energy levels (or spectral) of atoms due to the proton-electron dipole moment interaction. ... General Name, Symbol, Number hydrogen, H, 1 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 1, 1, s Appearance colorless Atomic mass 1. ... The abundance of a chemical element measures how relatively common the element is, or how much of the element there is by comparison to all other elements. ... The binary numeral system, or base-2 number system, is a numeral system that represents numeric values using two symbols, usually 0 and 1. ... In physics, spin refers to the angular momentum intrinsic to a body, as opposed to orbital angular momentum, which is the motion of its center of mass about an external point. ... Depiction of a hydrogen atom showing the diameter as about twice the Bohr model radius. ... e- redirects here. ... The wavelength is the distance between repeating units of a wave pattern. ... FreQuency is a music video game developed by Harmonix and published by SCEI. It was released in November 2001. ... MHZ redirects here. ...

Figures of a man and a woman

Figures of a man and a woman

On the right side of the plaque, a man and a woman are shown in front of the spacecraft. Between the brackets that indicate the height of the woman, the binary representation of the number 8 can be seen. In units of the wavelength of the hyperfine transition of hydrogen this means 8 × 21 cm = 168 cm. Pioneer plaque - Man and woman NASA Image of the Pioneer plaque. ... Pioneer plaque - Man and woman NASA Image of the Pioneer plaque. ...

The right hand of the man is raised as a sign of good will. Although it is unlikely that this gesture will be understood, it offers a way to show the opposable thumb and that the limbs can be moved. Missing image Thumbs up In human anatomy, the thumb is the first digit on a hand. ... Look up Limb in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Originally Sagan drew the humans holding hands, but soon realized that an extraterrestrial might perceive the figure as a single creature rather than two people. The figures appear to be Caucasian and Occidental, but Linda's generic depiction of mankind was intended to be as racially free as possible.

One can see that the woman's genitals are not really depicted; only the mons veneris is shown. It has been claimed that Sagan, having little time to complete the plaque, suspected that NASA would have rejected a more intricate drawing and therefore made a compromise just to be safe.^[1] However, according to Mark Wolverton's more detailed account, the original design included a "short line indicating the woman's vulva."^[2] It was erased as condition for approval by John Naugle, former head of NASA's Office of Space Science and the agency's former chief scientist.^[3] This article does not cite any references or sources. ... In human anatomy or in mammals in general, the mons pubis (Latin, pubic mound), also known simply as the mons, is the soft mound of flesh present in both genders just above the genitals, raised above the surrounding area due to a pad of fat lying just beneath it which... The external genital organs of the female are collectively known as the vulva (plural vulvae, vulvas)[1] or genitalia feminina externa[2]. In common speech, the term vagina is often used improperly to refer to the vulva or female genitals generally, even though, strictly speaking, the vagina is a specific...

But Sagan himself wrote that "The decision to omit a very short line in this diagram was made partly because conventional representation in Greek statuary omits it. But there was another reason: Our desire to see the message successfully launched on Pioneer 10. In retrospect, we may have judged NASA's scientific-political hierarchy as more puritanical than it is. In the many discussions that I held with such officials up to the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the President's Science Adviser, not one Victorian demurrer was ever voiced; and a great deal of helpful encouragement was given." Classical sculpture refers to the forms of sculpture from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Victoria Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria (reigned 1837 - 1901) in particular, and to the moral climate of Great Britain throughout the 19th century in... In common law civil procedure, a demurrer is a pleading by the defendant that contests the legal sufficiency of the complaint without admitting or denying the allegations therein. ...

He also commented that "The idea of government censorship of the Pioneer 10 plaque is now so well documented and firmly entrenched that no statement from the designers of the plaque to the contrary can play any role in influencing the prevailing opinion. But we can at least try."^[4]

Relative position of the Sun to the center of the Galaxy and 14 pulsars

Relative position of the Sun to the center of the Galaxy and 14 pulsars with their periods denoted

The radial pattern on the left of the plaque shows 15 lines emanating from the same origin. 14 of the lines have corresponding long binary numbers, which stand for the periods of pulsars, using the hydrogen spin-flip transition frequency as the unit. Since these periods will change over time, the epoch of the launch can be calculated from these values. Pioneer Plaque - Pulsars NASA Image of the Pioneer plaque. ... Pioneer Plaque - Pulsars NASA Image of the Pioneer plaque. ... In mathematics, the origin of a coordinate system is the point where the axes of the system intersect. ... Periodicity is the quality of occurring at regular intervals (e. ... It has been suggested that Radio pulsar be merged into this article or section. ... In astronomy, an epoch is a moment in time for which celestial coordinates or orbital elements are specified. ...

The lengths of the lines show the relative distances of the pulsars to the Sun. A tick mark at the end of each line gives the Z coordinate perpendicular to the galactic plane. The Sun (Latin: Sol) is the star at the center of the Solar System. ... The galactic plane is the plane in which the majority of a flattened galaxys mass lies. ...

If the plaque is found, only some of the pulsars may be visible from the location of its discovery. Showing the location with as many as 14 pulsars provides redundancy so that the location of the origin can be triangulated even if only some of the pulsars are recognized. Triangulation can be used to find the distance from the shore to the ship. ...

The data for one of the pulsars is misleading. When the plaque was designed, the frequency of pulsar "1240" (now known as J1243-6423) was known to only three significant decimal digits: 0.388 seconds [1]. The map lists the period of this pulsar in binary to much greater precision: 100000110110010110001001111000. Rounding this off at about 10 significant bits (100000110100000000000000000000) would have provided a hint of this uncertainty. This pulsar is represented by the long line pointing down and to the right.

The fifteenth pulsar line on the plaque extends to the far right, behind the human figures. This line indicates the sun's relative distance to the center of the galaxy.

Solar system

The solar system with the trajectory of the Pioneer spacecraft

Silhouette of the Pioneer spacecraft relative to the size of the humans

At the bottom of the plaque is a schematic diagram of the solar system. A small picture of the spacecraft is shown, and the trajectory shows its way past Jupiter and out of the solar system. Both Pioneers 10 and 11 have identical plaques, but after launch Pioneer 11 was redirected onwards to Saturn thus making its plaque somewhat out of date. Saturn's rings could give a further hint to identifying the solar system. Rings around the planets Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune were unknown when the plaque was designed. Pluto was considered to be a planet when the plaque was designed; in 2006 the IAU reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet. Pioneer plaque - Solar system NASA Image of the Pioneer plaque. ... Pioneer plaque - Solar system NASA Image of the Pioneer plaque. ... Pioneer plaque - Spacecraft NASA Image of the Pioneer plaque. ... Pioneer plaque - Spacecraft NASA Image of the Pioneer plaque. ... Sample flowchart diagram A diagram is a simplified and structured visual representation of concepts, ideas, constructions, relations, statistical data, anatomy etc used in all aspects of human activities to visualize and clarify the topic. ... Mathematically the term trajectory refers to the ordered set of states which are assumed by a dynamical system over time (see e. ... Adjectives: Jovian Atmosphere Surface pressure: 20–200 kPa[4] (cloud layer) Composition: ~86% Molecular hydrogen ~13% Helium 0. ... Adjectives: Saturnian Atmosphere Surface pressure: 140 kPa Composition: >93% hydrogen >5% helium 0. ... A planetary ring is a ring of dust and other small particles orbiting around a planet in a flat disc-shaped region. ... Adjectives: Uranian Atmosphere Surface pressure: 120 kPa (at the cloud level) Composition: 83% Hydrogen 15% Helium 1. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Adjectives: Plutonian Atmosphere Surface pressure: 0. ... Logo of the IAU The International Astronomical Union (French: Union astronomique internationale) unites national astronomical societies from around the world. ... Artists impression of Pluto (background) and Charon (foreground). ...

The binary numbers next to the planets show the relative distance to the sun. The unit is 1/10 of Mercury's orbit. The eight planets and three dwarf planets of the Solar System. ... This article is about the planet. ...

Silhouette of the spacecraft

Behind the figures of the human beings, the silhouette of the Pioneer spacecraft can be seen. It is displayed in the same scale so that the size of the human beings can be deduced from measuring the spacecraft. Spatial scale provides a shorthand form for discussing relative lengths, areas, distances and sizes. ...

Criticism

Critics have argued that the message is too anthropocentric and too hard to understand. Although the message was designed to encode the most information possible in minimal space, rather than to be easily readable, almost none of the scientists that were shown the message were able to decode all of it.^[5] Anthropocentrism (Greek άνθρωπος, anthropos, human, κέντρον, kentron, center), or the human-centered principle, refers to the idea that humanity must always remain the central concern for humans. ...

Ironically, one of the parts of the diagram that is among the easiest for humans to understand may be among the hardest for the finders to understand: The arrow showing the trajectory of Pioneer. An article in Scientific American^{[citation needed]} criticized the use of an arrow because arrows are an artifact of hunter-gatherer societies like those on Earth; finders with a different cultural heritage may find the arrow symbol meaningless. Traditional target arrow and replica medieval arrow. ... Scientific American is a popular-science magazine, published (first weekly and later monthly) since August 28, 1845, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ...

According to Frank Drake, there were many negative reactions to the plaque due to the fact that the human beings were displayed naked.^[6] The Chicago Sun-Times retouched its image to hide the genitals of the man and woman. The Los Angeles Times received "angry letters" from readers that accused NASA of wasting taxpayer money to send "obscenities" into space. Professor Frank Drake Frank Drake (born May 28, 1930, Chicago, Illinois) is an American astronomer and astrophysicist. ... “Clothes free” redirects here. ... The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago. ... This just IN !!!:paris hiltons new dog. ...

Appearances in fiction

• In the animated television series Futurama episode "Godfellas", Bender, floating in the vacuum of space, carves a likeness of the plaque's figures on his chest, being menaced by a larger size version of himself. He claims that "when I'm found in a million years, people will know what the score was".^[7]
• In the science fiction film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, the plaque is shown attached to the Pioneer probe floating in space—just before the probe is intercepted and destroyed by a Klingon ship. In the Star Trek novel Federation, a character mentions that humans had shown copies of the plaque to several alien races they encountered, but none had been able to decode it.
• An episode of the science fiction series The Outer Limits featured a deaf woman receiving alien signals through her hearing aid, prompting her to write out Xs, 1s, and 0s on paper. When put together, the Xs turned into the images of man and woman from the plaque, along with an extraterrestrial humanoid raising a hand in a peaceful gesture.
• In the introductory movie for the game, Battlezone 2, one of the Pioneer probes is seen drifting through space, the plaque visible on its side.

An animated series or cartoon series is a television series produced by means of animation. ... Futurama is an Emmy Award-winning animated American sitcom created by creator of The Simpsons Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox network. ... Godfellas is the twentieth episode of the third season of Futurama. ... Bender Bending Rodríguez or simply Bender and nicknamed Bending Unit 22, is a fictional character in the animated television series Futurama. ... Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (Paramount Pictures, 1989; see also 1989 in film) is the fifth feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series. ... This article is about the fictional race. ... The Outer Limits is an American television series. ... Behind the ear aid For the song, see Flood (album). ... Battlezone II: Combat Commander is a 1999 computer game released by Pandemic Studios as a sequel to Activisions 1998 Battlezone. ...

See also

• Pioneer program
• Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence

The US Pioneer program of unmanned space missions was designed for planetary exploration. ... CETI (Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or METI, Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is a branch of SETI research that focuses on composing and deciphering messages that could theoretically be understood by another technological civilization. ...

References

Alan Fletcher Alan Gerard Fletcher (27 September 1931 – 21 September 2006) was a British graphic designer. ... Insert non-formatted text here Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer and astrobiologist and a highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics, and other natural sciences. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 4th redirects here. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Pioneer plaque

• NASA on the plaque
• NASA on Pioneer 10 & 11
• The Pioneer Plaque as depicted in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

• Abhijit Bhattacharjee. A suggestion to choose the balanced ternary number system on the plaque as a universally deducible number system for future plaques
• Wm. Robert Johnston. Reading the Pioneer/Voyager Pulsar Map, updated 11 March 2003. Last accessed on 8 April 2006
• Carl Sagan, Linda Salzman Sagan and Frank Drake. A Message from Earth. Science, New Series, 175 (4024). 25 February 1972, pp. 881–884. Paper on the background of the plaque. Pages available online: 1, 2, 3, 4
• Edward Tufte, Pioneer Space Plaque Redesign. A humorous critique of the plaque's design