This image shows a plate that was placed on the Pioneer probe. It was designed to be discovered by an intelligent race.
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| About Pioneer
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Launched on 2 March 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the Asteroid belt, and the first spacecraft to make direct
observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter. Famed as the most remote object ever made by man, Pioneer 10 is now over 6.8 billion
miles away. The spacecraft made valuable scientific investigations in the outer regions of our solar system until the end of its mission on 31
March 1997. Pioneer 10 is headed towards the constellation of Taurus (The Bull). It will take Pioneer over 2 million years to pass by one of
the stars in the constellation.
Launched on 5 April 1973, Pioneer 11 followed its sister ship to Jupiter (1974), made the first direct observations of Saturn (1979) and
studied energetic particles in the outer heliosphere. The Pioneer 11 Mission ended on 30 September 1995, when the last transmission from the
spacecraft was received. Its electrical power source exhausted, the spacecraft could no longer operate any of its scientific instruments, nor
point its antenna toward Earth. The spacecraft is headed toward the constellation of Aquila (The Eagle), Northwest of the constellation of
Sagittarius. Pioneer 11 may pass near one of the stars in the constellation in about 4 million years.
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