MESSAGE TO THE ALIENS
There may be aliens in our Milky Way galaxy, and there are billions of other galaxies. The probability is almost certain that there is life somewhere in space.
Do you know who said this? These were the words of Buzz Aldrin, co-astronaut of Neil Armstrong. When a person who was directly is space and has more experience than any of us says these words, then there has to be something about the extra terrestrial organisms which is still mysterious! Not only us, but even the space organizations, eminent scientists and even great scientific personalities expect such life forms in the space. We have seen many evidences and proofs over the years. But do you know that a disk containing several messages were set to outer space expecting it to be received by aliens sometime in the near future? Shocking isn’t it? Lets see what was that disk and what did it contain?
It is known as the voyager golden disk. Its a set of two phonographic records which was sent in the voyager spacecraft in 1977.The records contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for any intelligent E.T life form, or for future humans, who may find them. The records are a sort of time capsule. Sounds like a Nolan movie isn’t it. The voyager is actually the farthest earth’s object in space currently in the interstellar space and is expected to loose communication with earth by 2030, but will continue its journey for more than 40,000 years hoping to find some kind of life and expecting them to decode the message and explain something very hopeful about life on this planet.
Lets see what that disk actually contained. The contents were carefully selected by a committee headed by Carl Sagan and they chose 116 images, greetings, various sounds of nature and life forms, 59 languages including many Indian languages, music and songs from different culture and brainwaves. Images included that of physical and mathematical units, definitions and formulae used in our planet, various life forms on earth, planets as they are viewed from earth, human anatomy, land forms present here,etc. Also it had few images to help the receivers of the disk to decode the message as they might not have a CD player or other tech that is available here.
Now lets see what the user manual of the disk has in it. Yes you read it right; a manual. As already mentioned, the life form that gets the disk may not have the same tech as ours; they might be the most basic life forms or very intelligent or super human forms. Therefore it has to be mentioned on how to play the disk but should be easily understandable and clear. Hence the scientists thought of using diagrams on the disk ( connect with the cave paintings which were the first mode of communication). In the upper left-hand corner is a drawing of the record and the stylus carried with it. The stylus is in the correct position to play the record from the beginning. Written around it in binary arithmetic is the correct time of one rotation of the record, 3.6 seconds, expressed in time units of 0.70 billionths of a second, the time period associated with a basic change in H2 atom. The drawing indicates that the record should be played from the outside in. Further many such details were added using diagrams for making sure that the contents are properly decoded.
A question might arise after reading all these; why was such message sent through a disk? Are we trying to show them that we live in the same galaxy and show our dominance? Or are we trying to surrender to them by showing what’s present in earth and asking them not to destroy it? Or are we storing such information about our planet for future generation which might survive if the planet is no more? Whatever it might be; but it definitely is a scientific marvel far beyond its time which everyone must know and should be put into greater and better use!
