A message to ET: 47 images from the Voyager Golden Record
A message to ET: 47 images from the Voyager Golden Record
Beyond our Solar System the Voyager 1 spacecraft carries a message to extra-terrestrial intelligence - here are some of the images on board.
Published: June 5, 2019 at 8:00 am
Bolted to the underside of each Voyager probe is a 12-inch gold-plated copper disc, the Golden Record. It’s a time capsule of Earth as it was in 1977, laden with images, music and diagrams: a message for any alien civilisation that might chance across it.
The contents offer a snapshot of human life and our place in the Universe. Among its 116 images are depictions of human anatomy, plants and animals, landscapes and scenes of everyday life. There are audio greetings in 55 languages, some ‘Earth sounds’ and 9 minutes of music, including works by Beethoven, Mozart and Bach, a Navajo chant, a Peruvian wedding song and Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode. It also carries a recording of the brainwaves of Voyager team member Ann Druyan, in the hope that another race might be able to decipher them.
Who knows, if an alien race are able to decode and decipher our messages then maybe projects like this could mark the start of an intergalactic friendship. In the meantime, check out the images that were contained in the Golden Record.
