Ikigai Daily
WonderScience factContext and sources

The Pioneer probes of 1972–73 carry gold-anodised plaques showing a man, a woman and directions to Earth — humanity's first physical message beyond the solar system. Some newspapers airbrushed the figures; readers wrote in to protest the nudity.

A letter to the stars

ScienceArtSpaceHistory

Why it matters

The idea in context

Carl Sagan and Frank Drake designed the plaque in weeks; Linda Salzman Sagan drew the figures. The pulsar map on it gives Earth's address in a language physics anywhere should read. Sagan later reprinted the outraged letters — one accused the space agency of spreading filth beyond the solar system — alongside his own wry defence. Both probes have long fallen silent, but the plaques sail on, built to outlast every monument on Earth.

Türkçe

Aynı kart, başka bir dilde.

1972–73'ün Pioneer sondaları; bir erkeği, bir kadını ve Dünya'nın yol tarifini gösteren altın kaplama plaketler taşır — insanlığın Güneş Sistemi ötesine ilk fiziksel mesajı. Bazı gazeteler figürlere rötuş yaptı; okurlar çıplaklığı protesto eden mektuplar yazdı.
Yıldızlara mektup

Plaketi Carl Sagan ile Frank Drake haftalar içinde tasarladı; figürleri Linda Salzman Sagan çizdi. Üzerindeki pulsar haritası, Dünya'nın adresini fiziğin her yerde okunabilecek dilinde verir. Sagan, öfkeli mektupları — biri uzay dairesini Güneş Sistemi'nin ötesine pislik saçmakla suçluyordu — kendi ince alaylı savunmasıyla birlikte sonradan yayımladı. İki sonda da çoktan sustu; ama plaketler, yeryüzündeki her anıttan uzun dayanacak biçimde yol almayı sürdürüyor.

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Background reading: Pioneer plaqueAttribution and context are revised when stronger evidence appears. Corrections are welcome through the editorial page.
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