Voyager Golden Record Contains Music

Launched in 1977, the twin Voyager spacecraft are more than just robotic explorers; they are interstellar (Review) time capsules. A committee chaired by astronomer Carl Sagan was tasked with creating a "message in a bottle" for any potential extraterrestrial civilization that might one day encounter the probes. The result was the Golden Record, a gold-plated copper phonograph disc designed to tell the story of Earth. This ambitious audio-visual collage was intended to convey the richness and diversity of our world in a way that could transcend language barriers.

The record's musical selections are a testament to this goal, spanning cultures and eras. It features the complex mathematical beauty of Bach, the soulful blues of Blind Willie Johnson, and the revolutionary energy of Chuck (Review) Berry's "Johnny B. Goode." These are woven together with a tapestry of natural sounds, from the crash of surf and the cry of an eagle to the sound of a human heartbeat and a mother's first words to her newborn. The disc also contains images depicting scientific diagrams, human anatomy, and scenes of daily life, all encoded as audio signals.

To ensure this message could be deciphered, the record's aluminum cover is engraved with a set of pictographic instructions. These diagrams show how to play the record using the included cartridge and needle, the location of our solar system relative to 14 pulsars, and a representation of the hydrogen atom to provide a universal unit of time and measurement. Built to last for a billion years in the void of space, the Golden Record is a poignant symbol of humanity's hope to connect with the cosmos.