NASA's Voyager 1: Enters the 'Magnetic Highway'

Voyager 1 and 2 are amazing they are still sending data back to Earth after all these years! and over such incredible distances... The Golden Record on Voyager 1 is full of interesting snippets of life on Earth...not sure how easy or hard it would be to interpret if 'something' picked it up : ) its kinda like a floating bottle in the ocean with a message.. very cool [img]http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/images/golden_record_cover_sm.jpg[/img] Carl Sagan was head of the committee that decided what should be included They assembled 116 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind, thunder and animals (including the songs of birds and whales). They also added musical selections from different cultures and eras, spoken greetings in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Jimmy Carter and U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. Images of mathematical and physical quantities, the solar system and its planets, DNA, and human anatomy and reproduction. These images show food, architecture, and humans in portraits as well as going about their day to day lives. The musical selection is also varied, featuring artists such as Beethoven, Guan Pinghu, Mozart, Stravinsky, Blind Willie Johnson, Chuck Berry and Kesarbai Kerkar. So come to dinner friendly Alien creatures We have beautiful scenery and cool music... bountiful resources hmmmm gulp! [img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cvnNAz3jN1U/Sw7CF9EG79I/AAAAAAAAB-Q/0ebJhhDbUwY/s400/aliens_thanksgiving.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.starburstmagazine.com/images/feb2012/alien_invasion.jpg[/img]

Hawkings said this about the potential threat of meeting extraterrestrial life: [i]I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach...If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the American Indians[/i] Is it too late to retrieve that golden disc!?! But, honestly though if we look at ourselves for example - whenever an advanced civilisation clashes with a 'primitive' civilisation, it never goes well! Look at the Conquistadors against Meso-America, the Slave Trade, Roman Empire, British Empire and so on. It's always been about conquering and marauding. Who's to say an Extraterrestrial race won't do the same to us? BTW, have you heard any of the NASA Voyager recordings: [b]Symphonies of the Planets[/b] [i]A fantastic recording from the space flights of Voyager I & II launched in 1977. The true ambient space sounds that come from electronic vibrations of the planets, moons and rings, electromagnetic fields of the planets and moons, planetary magnetosphere, trapped radio waves bouncing between the planet and the inner surface of it's atmosphere, charged particle interactions of the planet, it's moons and the solar wind, and from charged particle emissions from the rings of certain planets. All sounds are space sounds, there are no engine sounds from the spaceprobes.[/i] [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cpXpgjUT2k]Symphonies of the Planets[/url] So relaxing, I listen to it when I have trouble sleeping.

Hawking is speaking rubbish. Any race that is advanced enough to contemplate an interstellar rampage will not be concerned with trivial notions like 'raw materials'. They will have the technological means of creating any elements they need from stellar material. I believe that such creatures will have much higher matters on their alien minds. They could, of course, have the same esoteric motivations as the Engineers, but lack of raw materials will certainly not be a driver.

Its impossible to say either way. With a little luck no one will find it anyway. It will probably just keep drifting due to the huge distances involved. Still It would have been smarter to not broadcast our location with blind trust to any extraerrestrial culture thats out there. Of course all of our random signals are escaping from our communication satellites anyway so an advanced civilization capable of interstellar travel could probably just as easily pick up all of our communications data as it is...

Everything about us has been broadcast out into space from weather reports, top 10 chart hitters, war reports, economic downfall. You know how they say, first impressions count - so far we haven't made the greatest of first impressions. However, they can learn of our ingenuity, creativity and compassion. Hopefully they won't judge as a whole - not all of us are rotten eggs!

"...sun's magnetic field lines are connected to interstellar magnetic field lines.." It is not clear to me just where this boundry/atre is located. ' I assume it is far beyond Uranus but can you tell tell me how far out? A perspective would help to understand the distances involved, From my readings they talk in 75-100+AU but I am not clear the relationship to the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

Here's a graphic image demonstrating where Voyager 1 is you can see it's just about to break into what NASA dubs the Magnetic Highway - within a few months or a couple of years it ill break out into interstellar space. [img]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/12/06/article-0-0F13994A00000578-670_634x501.jpg[/img]

before we start feeling concerned about the invitations we are sending out We should use the Drake Equation to estimate the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy Frank Drake an American astronomer and astrophysicis developed this formula in 1961 while he was employed at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center. [b]N = R* fp ne fl fi fc L[/b] N = The number of communicative civilizations R* = The rate of formation of suitable stars (stars such as our Sun) fp = The fraction of those stars with planets. (Current evidence indicates that planetary systems may be common for stars like the Sun.) ne = The number of Earth-like worlds per planetary system fl = The fraction of those Earth-like planets where life actually develops fi = The fraction of life sites where intelligence develops fc = The fraction of communicative planets (those on which electromagnetic communications technology develops) L = The "lifetime" of communicating civilizations Frank Drake's own current solution to the Drake Equation estimates 10,000 communicative civilizations in the Milky Way. [img]http://images.clipartof.com/small/441339-Cartoon-Man-Wearing-Tin-Foil-And-Trying-To-Communicate-With-Aliens-Poster-Art-Print.jpg[/img] [img]http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/images/9/2011/02/supaliens.jpg[/img]

Are earthlings considered to be part of the 10,000 communicative civilizations in the Milky Way? I know a few people(you know who you are) that are not communicative and not civilized.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha So true Indy! : ) Im not sure the equation takes into account the quality of the communication ; ) This BBC link is cool! [url=http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120821-how-many-alien-worlds-exist]Are We Alone?[/url] [img]http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5pfvsojVd1rx06nvo1_500.jpg[/img]

Great work @Tankgirl

Thanks Rubirosa : )