Voyager Records Contain Earth Sounds

Launched in 1977, the Voyager Golden Records are humanity's ultimate message in a bottle. Assembled by a committee led by famed astronomer Carl Sagan, these phonograph records were designed to be a comprehensive time capsule, a snapshot of life and culture on Earth for any intelligent life that might find them in the distant future. The records themselves are made of gold-plated copper and are sealed in an aluminum jacket, which includes instructions in symbolic language on how to play the record and a map showing the location of our sun.

The audio portion is a rich tapestry of our planet's soundscape. It features a curated 90-minute selection of music, deliberately chosen for its cultural and emotional diversity. The playlist includes everything from the classical compositions of Bach and Beethoven to the rock and roll of Chuck (Review) Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," alongside traditional music from Peru, Senegal, and China. This musical journey is complemented by the "Sounds of Earth," which includes recordings of wind and thunder, whale songs, a baby crying, and a mother's kiss, painting a vivid auditory picture of our world.

Perhaps the most intimate and abstract piece of data included is an hour-long recording of the brainwaves of Ann Druyan, the project's creative director. While connected to an EEG machine, she meditated on a wide range of subjects, including Earth's history, the challenges of civilization, and the profound experience of falling in love with Carl Sagan. This deeply personal recording was encoded onto the record as a silent, emotional message, a novel attempt to communicate the complex inner world of a human being across the vastness of space and time.