A message to space

2004/09/03 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Fisika
• Astronomia

In space there are two copies of this golden disc. They were sent by NASA in 1972 and 1973 within Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, with the aim of informing possible aliens about the Earth. To do this, they recorded on the album words of welcome in 60 languages, music from different eras and cultures and sounds created by nature and man. In addition, the records had electronic information, it seems that an advanced civilization could become a diagram and a photo.

Perhaps more than one would find it too innocent. But according to a study they have done now, those at NASA were not totally wrong at that time. This is because the information sent through the waves is lost with distance and therefore is not effective. On the contrary, the messages recorded in the matter last longer and when you want to send a lot of information, you need less energy than to send by radio.

The research has been published in the scientific journal Nature.