The Voyager Golden Records are two identical phonograph records which were included aboard the two Voyager spacecraft launched in The records are a time capsule. Although neither Voyager spacecraft is heading toward any particular star, Voyager 1 will pass within 1. Carl Sagan noted that "The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring civilizations in interstellar space , but the launching of this 'bottle' into the cosmic 'ocean' says something very hopeful about life on this planet.
The Voyager 1 probe is currently the farthest human-made object from Earth. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have reached interstellar space, the region between stars where the galactic plasma is present. This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. The selection of content for the record took almost a year.
Sagan and his associates assembled images one used for calibration and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind, thunder and animals including the songs of birds and whales.
To this they added audio content to represent humanity: spoken greetings in 55 ancient and modern languages, including a spoken greeting in English by U. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim and a greeting by Sagan's six-year-old son, Nick ; other human sounds, like footsteps and laughter Sagan's ; [ 1 ] the inspirational message Per aspera ad astra in Morse code ; and musical selections from different cultures and eras.
The record also includes a printed message from U. The collection of images includes many photographs and diagrams both in black and white, and color.
