Murmurs of Earth

by Carl Sagan

  40. Structure of the Earth

  This diagram was prepared with the help of Dr. Steven Soter of Cornell University. Earth is shown schematically, though it is identifiable by the diameter and earth mass that appear beneath it, and echoes slides 5 and 12. The fourteen most abundant elements are shown, using their atomic numbers to identify them in their proportions in the planet as a whole. Inside the schematic of Earth is shown the composition, by relative atomic abundance, of the interior regions of the planet, called the core and the mantle.

  Pictures 41 through 45 show some typical landscapes.

  41. Heron Island

  An island along the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Coral formations can be seen in the water. We start with scenes of the ocean to suggest that water dominates the surface of Earth.

  42. Seashore

  Cape Nedick in Maine. Waves crashing on a rocky shore. A sky full of puffy clouds. This shows that there is solid rock and that there are winds.

  43. Snake River and the Grand Tetons

  Ansel Adams’s breathtaking photograph showing mountains, a river, and forests gives evidence of tectonic activity in our continent. (Photograph by Ansel Adams: The Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 1942)

  44. Sand Dunes

  This contains a lot of information about aeolian processes and dust-transport mechanisms in arid regions. A rider and his dog leave their tracks in the sand. We were afraid that the rider might be mistaken for a centaur. Later pictures make it clear that we have animals like horses and that we ride them.

  45. Monument Valley

  Some of the rugged geology of the American Southwest shown in color. The eroded volcanic plugs should be of interest, as should the humans with their flocks of sheep.

  Pictures 46 through 50 show vegetation in various seasons.

  46. Forest Scene with Mushrooms

  Tree trunks, a secondary growth of bushes and shrubs, and mushrooms, in color. This gives a sense of the ambience of a forest. It could well be that trees are rare in the universe. If you had never seen a planet and were designing one, you might never imagine something like a tree.

  47. Leaf

  A close-up of a strawberry leaf with the size indicated. The droplets of water beading the edge of the leaf are not dew but water actually oozing out of the leaf by transpiration. Recipients might recognize this object as a biological food factory.

  48. Fallen Leaves

  The growth on the trees has fallen off, and a human being seems to be collecting or raking it. This photograph was sent in color, and the fact that the fallen leaves have changed from the green color seen in the leaves of other trees might indicate to the recipients this tree’s deciduous nature, and perhaps even something about the existence of several different photosynthetic pigments.

  49 and 49a. Sequoia and Snowflake

  Sometimes it was possible to make a photocomposite—essentially getting two pictures in one frame—where the connection between the different pictures seemed obvious. Here is an example in color. The huge sequoia trees are covered with snow, and we have inserted a picture of a snowflake at the bottom right. Like the appearance of planets from space, the hexagonal crystalline structure of water should be familiar to extraterrestrials. Water is a common substance throughout the galaxy, and its crystal form should be known and recognized. One might even speculate that snowflakes—all the same and yet all different—are regarded as objects of beauty by beings treading the snowy worlds of other stars. The insert not only identifies the white substance covering the tree but also emphasizes again the presence of water on Earth. The small human figures give an indication of the size of the trees. The picture also shows that things live naturally where temperatures fall below freezing on Earth.

  50 and 50a. Tree and Daffodils

  This picture shows the branchy pattern of a tree in color. The insert is a close-up of the flowers surrounding the tree; we hoped that the similarity in color between the insert and the flowers in the larger picture would help recipients connect the two—and also show them the relative size of trees and flowers. In picture 49, the size of a tree is shown relative to a human being. Here the size is shown in absolute units (14 m). Considering that our ancestors lived in trees, our emphasis on them does not seem inappropriate.

  Pictures 51 through 60 show other representatives of the Earth’s biosphere, from various phyla.

  51. Flying Insect

  The flowers here are similar to the flowers in picture 69, again providing both an absolute and a relative indication of the size of the objects depicted. Even if the notation is obscure to recipients, it should be evident that humans are much larger than, and insects nearer the same size as, daisies. The wings of the insect are particularly well shown. The insect is a yellow ophion ichneumon wasp, whose life style strikes me as particularly unpleasant. Its larvae inhabit the bodies of other insects, burrowing through and devouring the flesh of their unwilling hosts until they grow big enough to gnaw their way to the surface. Other insects, like bees, have lives more in keeping with our moral and social sense, but this creature is an inhabitant of Earth too, and who were we to pass judgment on its way of life? (Copyright © 1975 by Stephen Dalton; Borne on the Wind published by Reader’s Digest Press, New York)

  52. Diagram of Vertebrate Evolution

  This sketch shows a very rough evolutionary sequence, to try to give some idea that animals on Earth have evolved together into the present various species, and that there was a movement from the sea to the land. With the exception of the shark (which is similar to the dolphin of picture 54) and the fish with feet, all the animals shown also appear in other pictures. The bird and the deer are outlined as they appear in pictures 58 and 62. The two humans may look familiar—they are the same pair that appeared on Sagan and Drake’s Pioneer 10 and 11 plaques, drawn by Linda Sagan. There was criticism of that plaque from some quarters, because the man was shown raising his hand in greeting while the woman stood in a pose that struck a number of viewers as unduly passive. In the interests of fairness, we show the couple again, and this time it is the woman whose arm is raised in cosmic greeting. Pace, feminists.2

  Diagram by Jon Lomberg. Adapted from Life: Cells, Organisms, Populations, by E. O. Wilson et al. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Fig. 18, p. 367)

  53. Seashell

  Seashells have been a favorite subject of mine for painting, and the perfection of their form has reminded me of the forms of much larger objects, such as galaxies. I also have a gut sense—as indefensible as any other intuition—that the order of their form gives them a beauty other intelligences may appreciate, if they have an aesthetic sense at all. (This is the same logic that led us to suspect that snowflakes and Bach might appeal to the senses and brains of another race.) This Xancidae, from the collection The Shell: Five Hundred Million Years of Inspired Design, has long been a favorite of mine.

  Frank Drake and Carl Sagan both felt this might be one of the more confusing pictures in the package, since it isn’t clear that the shell is a product of a living creature. It could equally well be a sculpture, a machine tool, a propeller or an architect’s model. Its placement among other living things may help resolve the confusion.

  54. Dolphins

  Whales and dolphins are, along with great apes and human beings, the most intelligent animals on the planet. Whale songs are included among the greetings on the record, so it seemed courteous to show dolphins in the pictures. The dripping water and the hydrodynamic streamlining (similar to the shark in picture 52) should be strong clues that this is an aquatic creature—and an energetic and exuberant one.

  55. School of Fish

  Sagan, Drake and I are all enthusiastic scuba divers, and we wanted some good underwater shots. But as we were looking through pictures of reefs and fish, we realized there was no way one could tell for certain that the scene was underwater. The most unambiguous way of showing an underwater scene was to have a diver present, since the air bubbles rising from the re
gulator should furnish clear evidence of the aqueous medium. In addition, the presence of the diver would show that human beings were interested in exploring and adapting to various environments. It is no accident that many space buffs (including science-fiction writers and astronauts) are scuba divers. The weightlessness, the life-support system, and the complex and gorgeous world of the reef seem a preview of interstellar exploration. It’s as close as most of us can ever get. This color photograph was taken in the reefs of the Red Sea off Na’ama Bay in Sinai.

  56. Tree Toad

  This little fellow was found and photographed in a backyard in Enfield, near Ithaca, New York. The picture also provides a close-up of a human hand, including a dirty fingernail.

  57. Crocodile

  In many of the pictures showing animals, a human being is present observing, photographing, or measuring the animal (see picture 60, for example). We hope this will indicate something of our curiosity about the natural world. This picture also shows a ventral view of a vertebrate.

  58. Eagle

  This picture, along with picture 114, should give some sense of the winged creatures of Earth, and how they fly. The eagle here is frozen in flight, with the structure of the wings very clear. (From the book Donana: Spain’s Wildlife Wilderness. Copyright © 1974 by Juan Antonio Fernandez. Reprinted by permission of Editorial Olivo, Spain, Taplinger Pub. Co., New York)

  59. Waterhole

  One of the earliest ideas Frank Drake had was to show animals around a waterhole, which would include a number of different species in the same photograph. The waterhole is also an in joke for devotees of interstellar communications. The likeliest means by which widely separated races in the galaxy will contact one another is by radio communication, and there has been much discussion as to the best frequency at which to search the skies for messages from the stars. One band of frequencies in the microwave region, a region of relatively low noise on the radio spectrum which is bounded by the emission of hydrogen on one side and the hydroxyl radical (OH) on the other, has been dubbed “the waterhole” because hydrogen and OH are products of the breakdown of water. Since water may be a crucial component of life throughout the galaxy, some poetic astronomers have suggested that this region might be the best place to search for messages. Just as human beings and animals historically meet at the waterhole, so might the water-based life of different planets meet at the radio waterhole.

  60. Scientists and Chimpanzees

  This color picture shows our near relatives being observed by two scientists, one of them the famous Jane Goodall. From the point of view of an extraterrestrial, chimps and human beings may be nearly identical—it seems likely that pictures of chimps dressed in cowboy suits would pass unnoticed by extraterrestrials. More human beings, they’d probably think. The fact that the human beings in this picture are studying the chimps may be a weak clue that the latter aren’t members of the race that made Voyager. On the other hand, it might appear that the chimps are the masters because the human beings are toting the gear. But we couldn’t leave out the primates. Also, the background shows a kind of vegetation not seen elsewhere: jungle growth. This photograph was taken by Jane Goodall’s mother, Vanne Morris-Goodall. When we wrote her that we wanted to use the picture, she replied: “I am completely overawed by the knowledge that I once pressed the button for a photograph which is now on its way to outer space, and still more so because my daughter, Jane, has merited the unique honor of representing an area of study on the planet Earth.”

  61 and 62. Bushmen Hunters and Silhouette

  Another photograph from The Family of Man collection, showing a typical human/animal relationship: the human being is about to kill the animal. Hunting is a primal human activity, but this picture illustrates teaching as well: the boy is observing his father. The silhouette restresses the human form and separates the deer from the background. We estimated that the boy and the deer were about the same size. In perspective, the deer looks much smaller. Perspective conventions may be one of the most difficult concepts for an extraterrestrial to grasp (human beings from cultures where perspective isn’t used have to learn how to see it). Since the boy and the deer are marked in the silhouette as being the same size, we hope we have provided a clue that will help recipients see this picture as we do—and apply this knowledge to all the other photographs as well.

  All the remaining pictures in the package concern human beings and our culture and artifacts.

  63. Man from Guatemala

  This picture was chosen for its close-up view of hands and face. The opposition of the thumb is shown and also a machete, one form of a basic and important human tool—the knife.

  64. Dancer from Bali

  This picture provides a clear presentation of human facial features and hands, and some suggestion of the complexities of dress and ornamentation found in most human cultures.

  65. Andean Girls

  Here are more hands and faces from a different human gene pool and culture, and more examples of human dress. The Peruvian music included on the record was made by such people.

  66 and 67. Thai Craftsman and Elephant

  The craftsman demonstrates some of the varied uses of the human hand and hand tools. The following picture shows the animal that is being carved (and also demonstrates how we have domesticated animals and put them to work). We hope recipients will recognize the similarity between the carving and the animal and thus get a sense of our concept of symbolic reproduction of real forms.

  68. Old Man from Turkey

  This close-up of hands and face furnishes some additional information, such as the existence of facial hair. The hat is clearly an object on the head, and this may make the less obvious head gear (as in pictures 63 and 64) more understandable. The spectacles are also obviously artificial, and a clever recipient might eventually guess that there were lenses in the frames, especially if evidence from other pictures had suggested that eyes were organs of vision. When I spoke to the photographer, he made some obscure remarks about the substance the old man was smoking.

  69. Old Man in a Field

  This is one of three pictures (the other two are 44 and 61) that show dogs accompanying human beings. We hope the recipients will guess that dogs are our friends.

  70. Mountain Climber

  This picture shows the French climber Gaston Rébuffat atop a spire of rock in the Alps. If the recipients recognize the silhouetted human figure, they may guess that it was both difficult and seemingly pointless to scale this rock needle. The only point would be the accomplishment of doing it. If this message is communicated, it will tell extraterrestrials something very important about us. (Escalade par Gaston Rébuffat, guide de Chamonix, du Grand Gendarme du Pic de Roc, Massif du mont Blanc [cliche Gaston Rébuffat]).

  71. Gymnast Cathy Rigby

  Sports Illustrated provided this stroboscopic picture, taken by Phillip Leonian, of Cathy Rigby on the balance beam. If this had been the only picture of a human being we sent, what a strange image of us recipients might have! But it should be clear that this is one person in movement, and it probably gives a better sense of how we move than anything else could have. The picture shows that we stand on one foot, on two feet or (some of us) on our hands, and that we can roll over backwards. On the balance beam, we superimposed the approximate time it would take to execute this part of a routine. This seat-of-the-pants estimate may not be highly accurate (maybe it took her ten or fifteen seconds), but the important point is that we move in seconds as opposed to microseconds or years.

  72. Olympic Sprinters

  Like picture 36, this selection grew out of the desire for a picture that showed representatives of various races of human beings, and it occurred to us that the Olympics were a good place to look for such a scene. Here a white man (the Russian champion Valery Borzov), two black men and an Oriental sprint toward the finish line. The musculature of the leg, which did not appear in the anatomy pictures 18-25, is shown, as are various positions in the act of running.
Careful study may also reveal the presence of other people standing around, perhaps giving a clue that we are not just runners but also spectators in our sports events, and that there is competition.

  Recipients will have learned Arabic numbers from our dictionary. They may be confused by the numbers on the chests of the runners, perhaps thinking they have been put on the picture for their benefit (to measure something, as in the Cathy Rigby picture). Or perhaps the wrinkles in the numbers will indicate that they are really on clothing and that they were put there not for the extraterrestrials but for the human audience.