Saturday 9 September 2017

The Voyager Spacecraft

NASA marks 40th anniversary of Voyager launches
[O]n board each is a golden record with sounds and pictures from Earth, as well as spoken greetings in dozens of languages.
It’s almost certainly the case these records will never ever be listened to or viewed. The spacecraft will be drifting through space long after the extinction of humankind. It will drift for countless trillions of years. All other signs of the human race will have long since been obliterated. In fact, the whole Earth will have been swallowed up by the death throes of the Sun as it expands into a red giant. Just those discs that no-one and nothing will ever view or listen to as a lasting memento of human culture and life on Earth.

 

It is very unsatisfactory

Just thinking. In 2 billion years time, the Earth will be completely devoid of all life. A hot, barren husk. All signs that human beings eve...