Astrophysicist Frank Drake, who proposed the equation of the same name, which makes it possible to estimate the number of highly developed civilizations in the Universe, considers maps at Voyager stations, which indicate the location of the solar system, as a potential threat to humanity. The Daily Mail reports.
“In those days, everyone with whom I dealt was optimistic and thought that aliens would be friendly,” his daughter Nadia quotes Drake. "Nobody thought, even for a few seconds, about whether this could be a dangerous undertaking."
It was Drake who suggested using the distance between the star and the pulsars to draw up a map showing the location of the Sun. The map was featured on the Pioneer and Voyager mission plates.
According to Drake, in the 1970s, scientists did not know how many Earth-like planets in the Milky Way were. On the other hand, the scientist considers the probability that the Voyager stations will be noticed by aliens extremely small, since the devices are not aimed at the nearest stars, but simply "go where they are going."
Voyager 1 station launched on September 5, 1977, Voyager 2 mission launched on August 20, 1977. To date, Voyager 1 has moved away from the planet at a distance of about 21 billion kilometers. 40 thousand years after the station ceases to function, it will be at a distance of 1.6 light years from the star Gliese 445, located in the constellation Giraffe. Voyager 2 is currently located at a distance of about 17 billion kilometers from Earth. In 40 thousand years, the device will fly past the star Ross 248 at a distance of 1.7 light years.