Goofs

In a scene that begins at 1h 5mins of the film, Dr. Robert Pearlman (played by Dennis Lipscomb) asserts that angles of meteors' trajectories match those of Pioneer spacecraft, as presented in the "pixelated message that was sent on Pioneer 11". What he refers to is actually Arecibo message, sent on 16 November 1974 by Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. This message has never been put on any spacecraft, instead it was sent by means of modulated radio waves. Hence, the shape Pearlman refers to is of Arecibo Observatory's antenna, and not of Pioneer spacecraft as presented in the film. This probably got confused with Pioneer plaque - an aluminium plaque that really was put on Pioneer 10 an 11 spacecraft, which were launched into space respectively 2 and 1 year before Arecibo message. The plaque and message, while having similar goal of communicating with potential extraterrestial intelligence, look very different from each other. See more