“This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours.”
– President Jimmy Carter
WHAT IS THE GOLDEN RECORD?
"Forty years as an astronomer have not quelled my enthusiasm for lying outside after dark, staring up at the stars. It isn't only the beauty of the night sky that thrills me. It's the sense I have that some of those points of light are the home stars of beings not so different from us, daily cares and all, who look across space with wonder, just as we do."
-Frank Drake
“The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring civilizations in interstellar space, but the launching of this ‘bottle’ into the cosmic ‘ocean’ says something very hopeful about life on this planet.”
– Carl Sagan
In 1977, the voyager spacecraft was launched by NASA, and aboard it was two gold-coated phonograph recordings intended “to communicate to terrestrials a story of the world of humans on earth.” The record creation was chaired by scientist Carl Sagan. Images included, animals, planets, landscapes, food, architecture, greeting in almost sixty languages, and humans in portraits as well as going about their day-to-day lives.
Music, which was selected by creative directors such as Frank Drake and Ann Druyan, and included such music as: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Chuck Berry, and Azerbaijani folk music. The record also carried an hour-long recording of the brainwaves of Ann Druyan. During the recording Druyan thought about a variety of topics, including Earth’s history, civilizations, and the problems they face, and what it was like to fall in love.
Right now, Voyager 1 is currently the farthest human-made object from Earth and both Voyager 1 and 2 have reached interstellar space. To learn more about the Golden Record and send a message click below.