Here’s What Humanity Wanted Aliens to Know About Us in 1977

It was nearly 30 years ago—Jan. 24, 1986, nearly a decade after it had been launched—that the Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest pass to Uranus and, as TIME phrased it, “taught scientists more about Uranus than they had learned in the entire 205 years since it was discovered.”
But the sophisticated equipment that sent information back to NASA wasn’t the only important thing on board the spacecraft. The Voyager 2, like the Voyager 1, carried with it a record, plated in gold, on which had been encoded sounds and images meant to “portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth,” according to NASA. The message from Earth was curated by a committee led by Carl Sagan and contained 115 images of “scenes from Earth.”
It was estimated in 1977, when the Voyagers launched, that it would take 40,000 years for them to reach a star system where there might be a being capable of deciphering the record. But, should that ever happen, what exactly could those photos say about humanity? Here’s a hint, from a few of the pictures on the golden record, and our best guesses at how hypothetical aliens might interpret them:
Cute young Earthlings and an image of their planet, or maybe giant Earthlings and a smaller planet under their control:

Yutaka Nagata—UN PhotoA group of children learn at the UN International School in New York City in 1968
A fully grown Earthling, or maybe a demonstration of the kinds of weapons available o...

Source: TIME: Top Science and Health Stories - January 22, 2016 Category: Science Authors: TIME Photo Tags: Uncategorized Science space Source Type: news