Window mode follows your eyes with your camera, in this browser only: no picture or position leaves your device.
The Sounds of Earth Record Cover - GPN-2000-001978
1977-09-04
- Classification
- Photograph
- Museum
- Wikimedia Commons
- Credit line
- The Sounds of Earth Record Cover
- Rights
- Public domain, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
About this work
Voyager Golden Record
This gold aluminium cover was designed to protect the Voyager 1 and 2 "Sounds of Earth" gold-plated records from micrometeorite bombardment, but also serves a double purpose in providing the finder a key to playing the record.
The explanatory diagram appears on both the inner and outer surfaces of the cover, as the outer diagram will be eroded in time. Flying aboard Voyagers 1 and 2 are identical "golden" records, carrying the story of Earth far into deep space. The 12 inch gold-plated copper discs contain greetings in 60 languages, samples of music from different cultures and eras, and natural and man-made sounds from Earth. They also contain electronic information that an advanced technological civilization could convert into diagrams and photographs. Currently, both Voyager probes are traversing the uncharted territory of interstellar space, moving further away from the Sun than any man-made objects in history as they continue their multi-decade journey through the cosmic void.
