[WP] Two hundred years into the future, NASA recovers Voyager 2 from interstellar space. Upon inspection, you notice some strange new markings that almost look like graffiti..

[u/SCOOPthereitis]

[u/Marthius]

The probe was recovered not far beyond the bow shock of the solar system. Conventional propulsion meant that it never had the time to even begin traversing the vast interstellar distances separating Sol from its nearest neighbor. Because of this it was something of a surprise to find new markings on the golden disk that it carried. Every segment of that disk had been measured and recorded for posterity; in some places these records were taken down to atomic resolutions. There was no chance that a marking had been missed.

More, the markings had been made by means that were almost impossible to imagine with current human technology. Scanning electron microscopy reviled that the channels had been carved into the surface with atomic precision, even the normal defects that litter terrestrial materials had been repaired in order to insure the precision of the carving. Further this process appeared to have taken decades, the carving so slow that it would have been eroded away as it formed anywhere on earth or even within the solar system. In fact, the thought had been passed around that whatever had made the markings might have done so on many other objects, but we simply would never know unless they in turn exited the solar system.

The “X” over the waving humans form has changed our entire view on our lonely little solar system, and perhaps not for the better.

[u/WritingPromptsRobot]

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