Soon, it too will venture into interstellar space. The slightly slower Voyager 2 is at the outermost edge of our solar system, where the sun’s plasma wind blows against cosmic dust and gas. Speeding along at 17 kilometers per second, it will take another 40,000 years before the spacecraft passes within 1.6 light-years of a star in the constellation Camelopardalis. As of this writing, it’s almost 21 billion kilometers away from Earth. Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 2012. At the intersection of those three perspectives, the Voyager record is a testament to the potential of science and art to ignite humanity’s sense of curiosity and wonder. In the realm of science, it raises fundamental questions about who we are and our place in the universe. As an objet d’art and design, it represents deep insights about communication, context, and the power of media. As an exquisitely curated music compilation, the Voyager record is an inviting port of entry to unfamiliar yet entrancing sounds from other cultures and other times.
![explanation of voyager golden records explanation of voyager golden records](https://thumbnails-visually.netdna-ssl.com/the-sounds-of-earth-record-cover_50290ffb10d3a_w1500.jpg)
Astronomer Frank Drake, father of the scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), was the technical director, writer and novelist Ann Druyan was the creative director, science journalist and author Timothy Ferris produced the record, space artist Jon Lomberg was the designer, and artist Linda Salzman Sagan organized the greetings.Īs we embarked on our own Kickstarter project to make the golden record available on vinyl for the first time, in celebration of Voyager’s 40th anniversary, we realized that we saw the original artifact through three different lenses. Natural sounds-birds, a train, a baby’s cry, a kiss-are collaged into a lovely audio poem called "Sounds of Earth." There are spoken greetings in dozens of human languages-and one whale language-and more than 100 images encoded in analog that depict who, and what, we are.Īstronomer and science educator Carl Sagan chaired the Voyager Interstellar Record Committee that created this object, which is both an inspired scientific effort and a compelling piece of conceptual art.
![explanation of voyager golden records explanation of voyager golden records](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b9/05/ba/b905ba2976f8038fd2b8f67a7ee84303.png)
The Golden Record tells a story of our planet expressed in sounds, images, and science: Earth’s greatest music from myriad peoples and eras, from Bach and Beethoven to Blind Willie Johnson and Chuck Berry, Benin percussion to Solomon Island panpipes. This enchanting artifact,officially called the Voyager Interstellar Record, may be the last vestige of our civilization after we are gone forever. Attached to each of these probes is a beautiful golden record containing a message for any extraterrestrial intelligence that might encounter it, perhaps billions of years from now. In 1977, NASA launched two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, on a grand tour of the solar system and into the mysteries of interstellar space.