The gold-plated aluminum cover (L) of the Voyager golden record (R) both protects it from micrometeorite bombardment and also provides a key to playing it and deciphering Earth’s location. Image credit: NASA.

Voyager’s “Cosmic Map” of Earth’s location is hopelessly wrong

The pulsar map to Earth was perfect when it was launched. By time aliens get it, it’ll be completely useless.

“We [are] a species endowed with hope and perseverance, at least a little intelligence, substantial generosity and a palpable zest to make contact with the cosmos.” -Carl Sagan

Forty years ago, the Voyager spacecrafts were launched, destined to become the first human-created objects to leave the Solar System. As they traveled away from Earth and into interstellar space, they carried a special message for anyone who’d find them in the far future: the Voyager Golden Record. Containing songs, images, and sounds of Earth, it was designed to be an information-laden cosmic time capsule, capable of being easily deciphered by any intelligent alien species to come upon it. On the cover of the record, a series of diagrams was emblazoned, including one very important one: a map of Earth’s location in the galaxy. Although the method used to locate Earth was very clever, it’s now understood to be inherently flawed, meaning anyone receiving it will most likely be unable to track down exactly where our planet is, after all.