Fears over 'maps to earth' sent into space by NASA 40 years ago
Maps showing how to find Earth that NASA sent into deep space forty years ago could prove dangerous to humans.
That’s a claim made by one of the astronomers who sent them into space.
NASA launched the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes into space in 1977 to study the solar system.
The crafts are currently in deep space beyond our solar system and contain a diagram etched onto a golden record that reveals to intelligent life how to find Earth in space and time.
The maps are similar to plaques placed on the NASA probes Pioneer 10 and 11 launched in 1972 and 1973.
Dr Frank Drake, who designed the maps, told National Geographic people in the ‘70s were optimistic about the behaviour of extra-terrestrials.
“In those days, all the people I dealt with were optimists, and they thought the ETs would be friendly,” Dr Drake said.
“Now, however, as you know, there is a major debate among scientists and a variety of stakeholders about the wisdom of doing anything other than listening.
“Nobody thought, even for a few seconds, about whether this might be a dangerous thing to do.”
The maps show where Earth is based on a map of a digital rendering of the sun in relation to 14 pulsars.
If intelligent alien life found the probes and deciphered the maps, they would be able to trace them back to where they came from.
But York University’s Kathryn Denning, who studies the ethics of sending messages to extra-terrestrials, said “pros and cons” weren’t weighed up before launching the crafts.
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Earlier this year, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking said humans needed to be wary about contact beyond the stars.
In his documentary, Stephen Hawking’s Favourite Places, Mr Hawking warned meeting aliens could be like “Native Americans encountering Columbus”.
“That didn’t turn out so well,” he said.
He claimed aliens could be looking for “plants to conquer and colonise”.
However, Dr Drake said the possibility to the maps reaching aliens was “very small” due to the speed the probes were travelling.
“The thing is going something like 10 kilometres per second, at which speed it takes – for the typical separation of stars – about half a million years to go from one star to another,” he said.
“And of course, it’s not aimed at any star, it’s just going where it’s going.”
Voyager on is travelling at about 61,000km/h and is more than 18.8 billion kilometres from Earth – further from home than any human object.
