For instance, should they include a star map identifying Earth? Should we focus on ourselves, or all life on Earth? Should we present ourselves as we are, or as comics artist Jack Kirby would have had it, as “the exuberant, self-confident super visions with which we’ve clothed ourselves since time immemorial”?īut the records serve a broader purpose than spreading the word that we’re here on our blue marble. Researchers still debate what forms such messages should take. Since we still have not detected any alien life, we cannot know to what degree the records would be properly interpreted. They settled on elements such as audio greetings in 55 languages, the brain waves of “a young woman in love” (actually the project’s creative director Ann Druyan, days after falling in love with Carl Sagan), a wide-ranging selection of musical excerpts from Blind Willie Johnson to honkyoku, technical drawings and images of people from around the world, including Saan Hunters, city traffic and a nursing mother and child. A team led by astronomer Carl Sagan selected the contents, chosen to embody a message representative of all of humanity.
The grooves of the records record both ordinary audio and 115 encoded images. Inscribed on the records’ covers are instructions for their use and a sort of “map” designed to describe the Earth’s location in the galaxy in a way that extraterrestrials might understand. Since they move too quickly and have too little propellant to stop themselves, both spacecraft are now on what NASA calls their Interstellar Mission, exploring the space between the stars as they head out into the galaxy.īoth craft carry Golden Records: 12-inch phonographic gold-plated copper records, along with needles and cartridges, all designed to last indefinitely in interstellar space.
The twin spacecraft both visited Jupiter and Saturn from there Voyager I explored the hazy moon Titan, while Voyager II became the first (and, to date, only) probe to explore Uranus and Neptune.
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.įorty years ago, NASA launched Voyager I and II to explore the outer solar system.
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