The Sounds Of Earth: NASA’s Extraterrestrial Gold Disc and Its Contents

The original record resembles gold vinyl. And the diameter is really only slightly larger – 305 millimeters. But this “Elp” is actually made of copper, is gold-plated and has half the playback speed, i.e. 16.5 revolutions per minute. In addition, it is also stored with the needle in an aluminum package, on which the instructions for use are also engraved – in binary code. But anyway, a map showing where the Solar System lies in the Milky Way is also encrypted on it.

You can listen to and view information and footage in the introductory video report.

You are looking at the record “The Sounds Of Earth”, which NASA sent into space for extraterrestrials in two versions on Voyager 1 and 2 in 1977.

“Dear friends, we wish you all the best,” these are, for example, the words that Czech physicist Václav Kostroun, who is a professor at Cornell University in New York, suggested and also spoke for her himself. And he wasn’t alone.

What exactly does the original alien gold disc contain

The recording also includes greetings and wishes in a total of 59 different world languages, from the most widely spoken English to Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer 6,000 years ago. But it also includes 35 different natural and artificial sounds, from a baby’s cry to an elephant’s horn, whale singing, the sound of rain and sand to a rocket launch.

In addition to the sounds, the recording also contains 115 photos in analog, which will introduce potential finders to life on Earth, or a printed message from the then American president and the UN Secretary General. And everything closes with a 90-minute long concert of 27 musical excerpts from Beethoven to Chuck Berry to the singing of pygmy girls. In short, the board has the task of representing the entire population of the Earth in front of other civilizations.

“No one has ever attempted anything like this. You know, the space programs have been aiming for this since the events of the Cold War,” says Cassandra Hattonová, head of the science, space and popular culture department at Sotheby’s auction house, in a SZ Byznys report.

Billions of kilometers away. First place in space, even in the auction

A case with a board is attached to the outside of each car-sized probe. But both are already billions of kilometers from Earth – in the case of the faster Voyager 1, it’s almost 20 billion kilometers. Both have been in space for over 45 years, and Voyager 2 is perhaps the only one in history to see Uranus and Neptune in addition to Jupiter and Saturn.

Fortunately, the unique recordings for the aliens were not lost forever. And their copies, which were created in the 70s in the form of two tapes, have now even changed hands.

From the hands of their designer and his wife, they went to the Sotheby’s auction, which auctioned them on Thursday evening in New York with an estimated price of between 400 thousand and 600 thousand dollars, i.e. up to 13 million crowns. However, the 80th lot remained in the possession of the auction house due to the reluctance of the bidders.

Unlike other space programs, this is the first time that items from the Voyager missions have gone up for auction. A total of eight copies of the gilded copper plates with a message to aliens were made – including the pair that are now in space.

“Nothing like this has ever been sold before. And of course the provenance is fantastic: straight from Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan from their personal collection. So to have something like that is a really exciting idea,” adds Hatton.

In fact, the master copy of Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, who both led the recording project and married less than four years later in June 1981, did make it to the auction. The message designer then died in December 1996, leaving both tapes to his wife, the project’s creative director.

To infinity and beyond

And the Voyager probes? They will probably run out of power for their trip, which they derive from the decay of plutonium on board, by the end of this decade. And then they will also stop communicating with the Earth. However, as silent ambassadors of humanity, they will fly on and in space, even with their messages, which NASA has never sent before, they will wait for another billion years to meet other civilizations.

“They were designed to continue for billions of years. And we know that those probes will continue even after the Sun destroys our planet. Even so, we will have a good chance that it will be the last thing from civilization on Earth that will survive,” adds Cassandra Hattonová, head of the science, space and popular culture department at Sotheby’s auction house, in the SZ Byznys report.

2023-07-27 19:01:32
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