the remnants of some great spacefaring civilization long extinct...

[yellowdingo]

The staple of the old scifi, some artefact remnant of a spacefaring civilization, but what will ours look like?

1. A three dee printed Borg cube built of a maze of three dee printed pipes set adrift in interstellar space like an abandoned engine part.

2. a planet sized three dee printed barbie doll bent backwards around the moon with a single arm pointing at the earth

[Orthos]

3. A drifting plaque of metal and glass, once filled with electric lights and other parts long since damaged or corroded. The plaque itself is red; the piping structure yellow, and resembles a large, curved M shape.

[Ambrosia Slaad]

4) A buried trove of Rubik's cubes, Atari 2600 E.T. cartridges, AOL installation CDs, and tons of plastic.

[Fabius Maximus]

5. A box full of more or less cylindrical objects of various sizes that are tapered on one end and partially dissolved by battery acid.

[Haladir]

Unnatural organic chemicals still in measurable quantities in the Earth's atmosphere. (e.g. fluorocarbons)

[ShadowcatX]

A foot print on a planet with no atmosphere.

[Quark Blast]

ShadowcatX wrote:

A foot print on a planet with no atmosphere.

For a long while, yes, but eventually meteorite impacts will waste that away.

If I were the type to gamble I would bet ours ends up looking more like two dead plutonium oxide batteries surrounded by inoperable gizmos and emblazoned with an indecipherable gold disk. That is...

This Voyager 1

and

this Voyager 2

[LazarX]

Haladir wrote:

Unnatural organic chemicals still in measurable quantities in the Earth's atmosphere. (e.g. fluorocarbons)

Those would break down and flush out fairly quickly, within about a few centuries, Earth's atmosphere would show no sign of our industrial footprint.

[Vod Canockers]

A moon sized mass of plastic 6-pack rings, dirty diapers, garbage bags, beer and pop cans, etc floating between the Earth and Mars.