A System of Scale, Images 3-6, The Golden Record
(larger version - Images shown in order from right-to-left, top-to-bottom.)
Immediately after reiterating the Sun’s location vis-a-vis 14 pulsars (which is also etched into the cover), the third image sets up our number system, converting dots to binary, and then to numerals. The fourth image then establishes earth systems of time, mass and physical distance, once again using the hydrogen atom’s ‘fundamental transition period’, mass and spectral line. This establishes a sense of scale used to describe the contents of 33 of the remaining images.
The fifth and sixth images take full advantage of these equations, showing the Sun and 9 planets in our solar system along with their diameter (kg), distance from the sun (km), mass (measured in multiples of Earth, or ‘e’) and rotational speed (earth days, or d). Already we find factual obsolescence in this 1977 time capsule with the inclusion of Pluto. Would only eight planets be included in a similar 2009 NASA description of our solar system?
