Don't forget, Voyagers 1 and 2. They also left the solar system, and should be at least 90 AU away by now. The truth is, they would never really last forever; they would probably be captured by a star's gravity at some point, and be forced into an elliptical orbit or right into the star itself. And even if it manages to escape that, radioactive decay would eventually take it's toll on the probe. All matter, including the metal the probes are made from, eventually dissipates atomically. The lighter elements do so at such a slow rate that it is impossible to detect with our strongest instruments. Nevertheless, after trillions, even quadrillions of years, the probes would be reduced to almost nothing.

this is a fairly large universe we are in with possible other dimensions involved.

it is quite possible it is true, we are but a part of "life" in it. intellegent or not, no matter.

for what we know we might be a foot note, in the local galactic who's who

and even, not get a mention in the big book of life.

so......

we get our poop in a pile and get out there and kick some butt!

whatever you believe, it is up to us to make our mark.

shall we go down as another dirtbag, wannabe race of playa's or what?

god gave us the tools to do anything.

i am on the fence.

[edit on 31-12-2009 by fooks]

That's sad and beautiful .
I only wonder why humans still think that it's the possibility of being found which is a major determining factor.

Any intelligent life out there would look at the junk pile from our planet floating around in our atmosphere made of old rockets and whatever and be disgusted by it.

As far as this being a "message in a bottle" I say ; good luck.
It's going to be perceived as something nasty that came floating out of that stinky and ridiculous planet called earth; stinky and nasty because its people don't take care of it.

They will then ZOOM in on the junk pile that floats in the Pacific Ocean and be like; so... why would we want to go there?

Message in a bottle.
This will look like a piece of s$#t floating out from our planet to anyone watching it

S&F,

Like the pioneers and voyagers, new horizons will drift endlessly through the void, who knows? maybe a young race much like our selves will discover it in their system? could you imagine what kind of hope that would bring to them?

While unlikely, perhaps we will see a probe from another civilization that is either much more advanced now or extinct, wouldn't that be facinating? unfortunatly it would probably captured by the US and kept secret.

Originally posted by Xammu
...All matter, including the metal the probes are made from, eventually dissipates atomically. The lighter elements do so at such a slow rate that it is impossible to detect with our strongest instruments. Nevertheless, after trillions, even quadrillions of years, the probes would be reduced to almost nothing.

Well, I'll take billions of years. Heck, the whole universe is only 13 billion years old. If our space probes last even only 50 billion years, that's about 4 times the age of the universe today.

Surely something heading away from the planet would eventually collide with something else or just head into a star like already mentioned...