a425couple
2017-08-19 15:08:27 UTC
No, a Map NASA Sent to Space Is Not Dangerous to Earth
Claims about the pulsar maps carried by the Pioneer and Voyager
spacecraft are dangerously distorting the facts.
Picture of map on voyager
VIEW IMAGES
The cover of the Golden Record, sent into deep space aboard the twin
Voyager spacecraft. The pulsar map that points the way to Earth is the
starburst pattern seen at the lower left.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA
By Nadia Drake
PUBLISHED AUGUST 17, 2017
Let’s be clear: The map to Earth that NASA sent into space aboard the
Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft is not dangerous. It certainly hasn’t
“made it a lot easier for aliens to attack Earth,” it won’t “lead to
extraterrestrials taking over” our planet, and no one is rethinking this
“unintended ‘foolish’ act.”
These claims, which have been seeping through the news media over the
past 24 hours, are based on a misinterpretation of a story we published
about this map in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Voyager launches.
That story describes how 14 known pulsars can be used as galactic
signposts to help aliens find Earth, should the spacecraft bearing them
across the cosmos be intercepted in the near future.
As part of reporting that story, I interviewed my dad, Frank Drake, who
created the map in 1971. During our conversation, we talked about how
the pulsar map might fit into the current debate about deliberately
sending messages to extraterrestrial civilizations.
His answer: “In those days, all the people I dealt with were optimists,
and they thought the ETs would be friendly,” Drake says. “Nobody
thought, even for a few seconds, about whether this might be a dangerous
thing to do.”
All this statement means is that today’s debate was not occurring in the
1970s. It’s several cosmic leaps of logic between that and fearing “this
decision could prove to be disastrous,” or that he’s having reservations
“about the decision to guide aliens to Earth,” or that he is suggesting
“the maps could be dangerous.”
VIEW IMAGES
Frank Drake, the founder of the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence, or SETI, stands at his California home in 2015.
PHOTOGRAPH BY RAMIN RAHIMIAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST, GETTY IMAGES
When asked how he would respond to these statements, Drake says: “The
pulsar map is not dangerous at all. It will likely never even be seen by
extraterrestrials. Even then, it will be perhaps millions of years from
now.”
The truth is that Drake isn’t re-thinking the safety of sending the
pulsar maps into deep space; he’s not even opposed to the idea of
sending targeted messages to ET once we know where they are—he just
thinks it’s not a good use of our available resources, which ought to be
invested in detecting ET instead.
Kathryn Denning, the York University anthropologist we interviewed for
the original story, agrees that the map on its own is not a significant
risk when it comes to humans announcing our presence.
After all, we’ve been passively broadcasting radio signals from Earth
for decades. These messages travel at the speed of light, wash over
whatever is in their path, and are easily detected from afar.
By contrast, the Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft aren’t aimed at anything
in particular, and detecting them from afar would require
extraordinarily powerful radar systems and a heaping dose of luck.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Picture of a map
The Best—and Quirkiest—Maps of the 2017 Solar Eclipse
28 Surprising Adventures in the Tropics
Amazing Sights You Can Only See During a Solar Eclipse
What’s more, it will take them tens of thousands of years to brush by
the next stars along their paths. Even then, the chances of the probes
colliding with a planet or spaceship are so astronomically small they’re
essentially zero.
While the concept of crafting a map for aliens may spark questions about
much more targeted efforts to make contact, in reality, the Pioneer
plaque and the Voyager Golden Record carrying the pulsar map are not so
much messages to the stars as messages to ourselves.
The concept of NASA committing a foolish, dangerous act that might reap
the wrath of a violent alien civilization is certainly compelling. It’s
also fictional—or in the jargon of today, fake news.
Media organizations are already under attack from those who would deem
anything disagreeable “fake.” We continually have to prove that facts
are actually facts, that the truth needs telling, and that reason,
pragmatism, and logical thought have places in civil discourse and in
society.
There certainly is a place for fantasy when talking about the cosmos and
how we fit into it, but that place is not in news stories sold as factual.
Nadia Drake is a science journalist who writes the National Geographic
blog No Place Like Home.
FOLLOW NADIA
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/nasa-map-not-dangerous-pulsars-aliens-earth-space-science/
Claims about the pulsar maps carried by the Pioneer and Voyager
spacecraft are dangerously distorting the facts.
Picture of map on voyager
VIEW IMAGES
The cover of the Golden Record, sent into deep space aboard the twin
Voyager spacecraft. The pulsar map that points the way to Earth is the
starburst pattern seen at the lower left.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA
By Nadia Drake
PUBLISHED AUGUST 17, 2017
Let’s be clear: The map to Earth that NASA sent into space aboard the
Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft is not dangerous. It certainly hasn’t
“made it a lot easier for aliens to attack Earth,” it won’t “lead to
extraterrestrials taking over” our planet, and no one is rethinking this
“unintended ‘foolish’ act.”
These claims, which have been seeping through the news media over the
past 24 hours, are based on a misinterpretation of a story we published
about this map in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Voyager launches.
That story describes how 14 known pulsars can be used as galactic
signposts to help aliens find Earth, should the spacecraft bearing them
across the cosmos be intercepted in the near future.
As part of reporting that story, I interviewed my dad, Frank Drake, who
created the map in 1971. During our conversation, we talked about how
the pulsar map might fit into the current debate about deliberately
sending messages to extraterrestrial civilizations.
His answer: “In those days, all the people I dealt with were optimists,
and they thought the ETs would be friendly,” Drake says. “Nobody
thought, even for a few seconds, about whether this might be a dangerous
thing to do.”
All this statement means is that today’s debate was not occurring in the
1970s. It’s several cosmic leaps of logic between that and fearing “this
decision could prove to be disastrous,” or that he’s having reservations
“about the decision to guide aliens to Earth,” or that he is suggesting
“the maps could be dangerous.”
VIEW IMAGES
Frank Drake, the founder of the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence, or SETI, stands at his California home in 2015.
PHOTOGRAPH BY RAMIN RAHIMIAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST, GETTY IMAGES
When asked how he would respond to these statements, Drake says: “The
pulsar map is not dangerous at all. It will likely never even be seen by
extraterrestrials. Even then, it will be perhaps millions of years from
now.”
The truth is that Drake isn’t re-thinking the safety of sending the
pulsar maps into deep space; he’s not even opposed to the idea of
sending targeted messages to ET once we know where they are—he just
thinks it’s not a good use of our available resources, which ought to be
invested in detecting ET instead.
Kathryn Denning, the York University anthropologist we interviewed for
the original story, agrees that the map on its own is not a significant
risk when it comes to humans announcing our presence.
After all, we’ve been passively broadcasting radio signals from Earth
for decades. These messages travel at the speed of light, wash over
whatever is in their path, and are easily detected from afar.
By contrast, the Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft aren’t aimed at anything
in particular, and detecting them from afar would require
extraordinarily powerful radar systems and a heaping dose of luck.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Picture of a map
The Best—and Quirkiest—Maps of the 2017 Solar Eclipse
28 Surprising Adventures in the Tropics
Amazing Sights You Can Only See During a Solar Eclipse
What’s more, it will take them tens of thousands of years to brush by
the next stars along their paths. Even then, the chances of the probes
colliding with a planet or spaceship are so astronomically small they’re
essentially zero.
While the concept of crafting a map for aliens may spark questions about
much more targeted efforts to make contact, in reality, the Pioneer
plaque and the Voyager Golden Record carrying the pulsar map are not so
much messages to the stars as messages to ourselves.
The concept of NASA committing a foolish, dangerous act that might reap
the wrath of a violent alien civilization is certainly compelling. It’s
also fictional—or in the jargon of today, fake news.
Media organizations are already under attack from those who would deem
anything disagreeable “fake.” We continually have to prove that facts
are actually facts, that the truth needs telling, and that reason,
pragmatism, and logical thought have places in civil discourse and in
society.
There certainly is a place for fantasy when talking about the cosmos and
how we fit into it, but that place is not in news stories sold as factual.
Nadia Drake is a science journalist who writes the National Geographic
blog No Place Like Home.
FOLLOW NADIA
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/nasa-map-not-dangerous-pulsars-aliens-earth-space-science/