The records are made of a. copper-plated gold b. gold-plated aluminum c. gold-plated copper
The records contain depictions of human a. religion b. language c. politics
The covers of the records have a. engravings of human anatomy b. engravings of important monuments on Earth c. engravings that explain how to retrieve the sounds and pictures
Discussion/essay questions
The Golden Record team chose not to include images of war, poverty, and other negative parts of humanity. Do you think this was a good decision? Why or why not?
Which sounds and images would you choose to represent Earth? Why?
Transcript
In 1977, NASA launched two space probes, called Voyager 1 and 2, to explore and photograph the solar system. They knew that the probes would eventually drift too far away to bring back to Earth, so they decided to use the opportunity to create a greeting for alien civilizations. Each Voyager craft contains a gold-plated copper record. A team of researchers chose a series of sounds and images to represent Earth, including drawings of human anatomy, photographs of nearby planets, and songs and languages from around the world. On the covers of the records, the researchers engraved pictures that explain how to retrieve the information. Although there is a very small chance that an alien civilization will ever discover the Golden Records, they are built to last for a billion years, and they will likely outlive the human race.
Astronomers look in Goldilocks zones to find a. planets that humans could travel to b. planets with rare chemical compositions c. planets that might be able to produce life
Venus is not habitable because a. it is outside of the Sun’s Goldilocks zone b. its atmosphere is too thin to support liquid water c. greenhouse gases make it too hot for liquid water
Life may be possible outside of stars’ Goldilocks zones because a. some stars are hotter than others b. alien life forms may use a liquid other than water to survive c. some systems contain multiple stars
Discussion/essay questions
Do you believe there is life on other planets? Why do you think we haven’t found any?
Transcript
The Goldilocks zone, or habitable zone, is the place in a star system where a planet can reach the right temperature to have liquid water on its surface. Because life on Earth requires liquid water, astronomers look for exoplanets in Goldilocks zones in case they are also capable of producing life. However, not every planet in a habitable zone is actually habitable. Besides Earth, the Sun’s habitable zone also contains both Venus and Mars, which are either too hot or too cold to sustain much liquid water. This is because Venus has an atmosphere full of greenhouse gases, while Mars has barely any atmosphere at all. It is also possible that life made of different chemicals than life on Earth could develop outside of a star’s Goldilocks zone. These life forms would use a liquid other than water to survive.
Do you believe in life on other planets? Why or why not?
Do you think that aliens could be discovered in our lifetime?
Transcript
An exoplanet is a planet outside of our solar system. Most exoplanets orbit different stars in the galaxy. However, astronomers have observed some planets that are independent of any star system. The first two exoplanets were discovered in 1992. Since then, scientists have been searching for exoplanets that are similar to Earth. This might lead to the discovery of alien life. However, Earth-like planets are difficult to find, because the resources necessary for life only exist under very specific conditions. Our planet happens to be in the solar system’s habitable zone, where the temperature allows water to exist in liquid form. There are over 1,700 known exoplanets, and only 16 of them are potentially habitable.
