Pulsars as Cosmic Address: Voyager’s Language-Free Map

1 min read
Source: Space Daily
Pulsars as Cosmic Address: Voyager’s Language-Free Map
Photo: Space Daily
TL;DR

Voyager's Golden Record cover encodes a pulsar map and a hydrogen time standard to locate the Sun and roughly date the message, designed to work without a shared human language. Fourteen pulsars provide directional clocks (with a fifteenth pointing to the Galactic center for orientation), and a uranium-238 patch offers an independent age check. The scheme relies on interpretation and the galaxy's motion over time, reflecting a compact, language-free cosmic address with built-in redundancies and caveats.

Share this article

Want the full story? Read the original reporting

Read on Space Daily