Pioneer Plaque

Pioneers 10 and 11 both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the distant future.

The golden plaque was the brainchild of Carl Sagan who wanted any alien civilization who might encounter the craft to know who made it and how to contact them.

It gives our location in the Galaxy and depicts a naked man and woman drawn in relation to the spacecraft.

Pioneer 10 is heading towards the star Aldebaran in the Taurus constellation and will take more than two million years to reach it. Pioneer 11 is headed toward the constellation of Aquila (The Eagle), Northwest of the constellation of Sagittarius. Pioneer 11 will pass near one of the stars in the constellation in about 4 million years.