Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site mordor.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!ut-sally!mordor!@S1-A.ARPA,@MIT-MC.ARPA:mcgeer%ucbkim@Berkeley From: @S1-A.ARPA,@MIT-MC.ARPA:mcgeer%ucbkim@Berkeley Newsgroups: net.space Subject: Re: Voyager on to Uranus. Message-ID: <3007@mordor.UUCP> Date: Fri, 9-Aug-85 13:36:32 EDT Article-I.D.: mordor.3007 Posted: Fri Aug 9 13:36:32 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 12-Aug-85 20:45:13 EDT Sender: daemon@mordor.UUCP Lines: 23 From: mcgeer%ucbkim@Berkeley (Rick McGeer) >I have a question ..... > If something the size of a voyager, presumably not radiating >much radio energy, were to enter our solar system from an alien >culture, is the possibility of us detecting it more than miniscule ? > >I just wonder it would burn up in the sun unnoticed. If this happens, >it would make all Carl Sagan's artistic work of a man and a woman >rather pointless, and just a waste of NASA's budget. > > Ken Cochran vax135!hr1ar!ken > > If it burned up in the sun, it would have to be on an awfully screwy orbit. More likely, it would simply pass through the system; if it was in the plane of the ecliptic, it *might* be captured, but that too is very unlikely. So, yes, the artwork was a waste of NASA's budget, at least as far as making contact with aliens goes. Rick