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Adeldor t1_j1uxemc wrote

> ... super complicated and full of complex earth-based math ...

To the contrary, they are simplified as much as practical, resorting to very basic depictions of universally common natural measures, and using base 2 representation - the most basic number system. That doesn't mean inherent human assumptions aren't influencing layout or some other facet, but it's well within the bounds of reason to expect a technological society to be able to decode it.

Of course, the odds of such a society being close enough to find Voyager are low indeed (let alone the odds of detecting it).

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kjpmi t1_j1v2k14 wrote

The odds that an intelligent alien race could even intercept it are remote. Think about Omouamua (however you spell that). Chances are an intelligent race wouldn’t detect the Voyager crafts AND be able to realize that they might not be natural until well after they were millions and millions of miles past their planet.

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This_Username_42 t1_j1v5b5k wrote

Well, omoamumao wasn’t sending any signals out — voyager does (or did?) send out a radio signal

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tritonice t1_j1v5t92 wrote

Both Voyagers communicate with Earth almost daily still to this day. Hopefully until at least 2025, but we are in the endgame on both.

The transmitters are 20w, and even if they could transmit for eternity, it currently takes a dish 70m in diameter to "hear" (they can array two 34m dishes still, but it's getting very hard even with that setup). Bad weather at a DSN site (Autstralia is the only one that has line of sight to V2) can actually wash out the signal. You literally could not hear its signals at light year distances because it would be too weak and blend with background noise.

Follow @nascom1 on Twitter. He is the source of most of this and is excellent!!

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Nerull t1_j1v6497 wrote

Voyager will be completely dead tens of thousands of years before it reaches the proximity of another star..

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kjpmi t1_j1vfprf wrote

In hundreds of thousands of years when they actually pass any potentially habitable star systems, they will have no longer been able to broadcast any signals for hundreds of thousands of years.

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GuacamoleFrejole t1_j1vdyd4 wrote

But Voyager is/was sending RF signals, which a highly technologically advanced civilization may have abandoned eons ago.

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DrLongIsland t1_j1v6wr4 wrote

And, conversely, the odds that an alien specie intelligent enough to intercept and recover it, would then be able to translate it at that point are close to 100%. Sure, maybe they'll need to call their equivalent of Jodie Foster and it would take them some time, if their systems are completely different than ours, but eventually they would almost certainly figure it out.

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kjpmi t1_j1vf9r6 wrote

Exactly. The hard part is recognizing it and intercepting it, not deciphering it.

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Aleyla t1_j1v3xh9 wrote

Should have painted it dayglow orange.

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kitsepiim t1_j1v4er3 wrote

It's tiny and in a few years will be broadcasting fuck all signals. Space is ridiculously empty, chances are practically zero of it ever ending up inside some other solar system, let alone colliding with something. It will never be discovered.

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WicksyOnPS4 t1_j1v7b08 wrote

It definitely will be discovered. It's an infinite universe.

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Andrew_42 t1_j1v7wdh wrote

That sounds like it would make it LESS discoverable

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WicksyOnPS4 t1_j1voani wrote

No, it makes it inevitable. In an infinite universe, everything will happen.

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Andrew_42 t1_j1vq1zn wrote

That logic might suggest a probe identical to Voyager would be discovered somewhere by someone, but not that our voyager probe would be discovered by someone. What if it falls into a star first? How are they supposed to discover it then?

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WhyLisaWhy t1_j1wcfo6 wrote

It doesn’t work like that. It’s entirely possible the heat death of the universe happens with a dead, alone and decayed Voyager all by itself. Not everything that can happen will happen, this isn’t a Marvel movie.

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dhshred710 t1_j1v6c65 wrote

"Fools, no need to discover, NASA sold us your peasant spines long ago... This is the agency that hires Nazis for science, jeez dont you weaklings ever listen to Alex Jones??"

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AverageLiberalJoe t1_j1vf7c0 wrote

Imagine discovering something similar on earth that fell from space millions of years ago. Like are we gonna send out a signal saying "hey sorry just saw ur text..."

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bleve555 t1_j1vd5m3 wrote

Is the golden record indestructible?

When I contemplate infinity, it makes me believe that it (the record) is absolutely certain to eventually be intercepted or found by another lifeform and that the vastness of space only increases the amount of time that will pass before it happens.

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Adeldor t1_j1vep2e wrote

No, but it's within a case. However, over untold millions of years, there will be erosion. Extremely sparse as interstellar dust is, over time the collisions will have their effect, slowly eating away at the spacecraft. At some point the case, record, and vehicle will be "eaten."

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