Sounding VIII

Contents of Voyager’s Golden Record

Voyager 1, NASA’s robotic probe launched on 5 September 1977, is now in interstellar space, approximately 25.8 billion kilometers from Earth as of 29 September 2026, traveling at 16.9 kilometers per second relative to the Sun.

Attached to the spacecraft is a 12-inch gold-plated copper phonograph record, enclosed in an aluminum cover and accompanied by a cartridge and stylus; an identical record travels aboard Voyager 2, launched on 20 August 1977. Its images and sounds were selected to represent life and culture on Earth to any extraterrestrial intelligence that might encounter it. The project was led by Carl Sagan, with Frank Drake as technical director, Ann Druyan as creative director, Timothy Ferris as producer, and Jon Lomberg as designer. Linda Salzman organized the greetings.

I Images

In recorded order: calibration circle; solar location map; mathematical definitions; physical units; solar-system parameters, two frames; the Sun; solar spectrum; Mercury; Mars; Jupiter; Earth; Egypt, the Red Sea, Sinai and the Nile; chemical definitions; DNA structure; DNA structure enlarged; cells and cell division; human anatomy, eight diagrams; human sex organs; conception diagram; conception photograph; fertilized ovum; fetus diagram; fetus photograph; male and female diagram; birth; nursing mother; father and daughter in Malaysia; children; family-age diagram; family portrait; continental drift; Earth’s structure; Heron Island and the Great Barrier Reef; seashore; Snake River and Grand Tetons; sand dunes; Monument Valley; forest with mushrooms; leaf; fallen leaves; snowflake over a sequoia; tree with daffodils; flying insect with flowers; vertebrate evolution; seashell; dolphins; school of fish; tree toad; crocodile; eagle; waterhole; Jane Goodall with chimpanzees; drawing of San people; San hunters; Guatemalan man; Balinese dancer; Andean girls; Thai craftsman; elephant; elderly Turkish man with beard and glasses; elderly man with dog and flowers; mountain climber; gymnast; sprinters; schoolroom; children with globe; cotton harvest; grape picker; supermarket; diver with fish; fishing boat with nets; cooking fish; Chinese dinner party; licking, eating and drinking; Great Wall of China; African house construction; Amish construction; African house; New England house; modern house in New Mexico; interior with artist and fire; Taj Mahal; Oxford; Boston; United Nations building by day; United Nations building by night; Sydney Opera House; artisan with drill; factory interior; museum; hand X-ray; woman using microscope; Pakistani street; Indian rush-hour traffic; highway in Ithaca; Golden Gate Bridge; train; aircraft in flight; Toronto airport; Antarctic expedition; Westerbork radio telescope; Arecibo radio telescope; a page from Newton’s System of the World; astronaut in space; Titan-Centaur launch; sunset with birds; string quartet; violin with the score of Beethoven’s Cavatina; President Jimmy Carter’s written message, two frames; credits, four frames, including names of members of congressional committees associated with NASA.

II Greetings

A spoken message from then United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, followed by greetings in 55 languages, in playback order: Sumerian; Ancient Greek; Portuguese; Cantonese; Akkadian; Russian; Thai; Arabic; Romanian; French; Burmese; Hebrew; Spanish; Indonesian; Quechua; Punjabi; Hittite; Bengali; Latin; Aramaic; Dutch; German; Urdu; Vietnamese; Turkish; Japanese; Hindi; Welsh; Italian; Sinhala; Zulu; Sotho; Wu; Armenian; Korean; Polish; Nepali; Mandarin; Ila; Swedish; Nyanja; Gujarati; Ukrainian; Persian; Serbian; Oriya; Luganda; Marathi; Amoy; Hungarian; Telugu; Czech; Kannada; Rajasthani; English. Further United Nations greetings are interwoven with humpback-whale songs.

III Sounds of the Earth

Kepler’s planetary relationships rendered as electronic music by Laurie Spiegel; volcanoes, earthquake and thunder; bubbling mud; wind, rain and surf; crickets and frogs; birds, hyena, elephant and whale; chimpanzee; wind; wild dog; heartbeat, footsteps and laughter; fire and early tools; domestic dog; sheep herding, blacksmithing and sawing; tractor and riveter; Morse code and ships; horse and cart; train; tractor, road vehicles and automobile sounds; jet flyby and Saturn V launch; kiss, mother and child; physiological signals and pulsar.

IV Music

i. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, first movement. Munich Bach Orchestra; Karl Richter.
ii. Puspawarna (Kinds of Flowers). Javanese court gamelan; Pura Paku Alaman Palace Orchestra.
iii. Cengunmé. Mahi percussionists, Benin.
iv. Alima. Mbuti girls’ initiation song, Ituri rainforest.
v. Barnumbirr (Morning Star) and Moikoi. Aboriginal Australian songs; Tom Djawa, Mudpo and Waliparu.
vi. El Cascabel, by Lorenzo Barcelata. Antonio Maciel and Los Aguilillas with Mariachi México.
vii. Johnny B. Goode. Chuck Berry.
viii. Mariuamangɨ. New Guinea men’s-house song; Pranis Pandang and Kumbui.
ix. Sokaku-Reibo (Depicting the Cranes in Their Nest). Japanese shakuhachi; Goro Yamaguchi.
x. Bach, Gavotte en rondeau, Violin Partita No. 3 in E major. Arthur Grumiaux.
xi. Mozart, Queen of the Night’s revenge aria, The Magic Flute. Edda Moser; Bavarian State Opera; Wolfgang Sawallisch.
xii. Chakrulo. Georgian choral song.
xiii. Roncadoras and drums. Musicians from Ancash, Peru.
xiv. Melancholy Blues. Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven.
xv. Mugham. Azerbaijani balaban; Kamil Jalilov.
xvi. Stravinsky, Sacrificial Dance, The Rite of Spring. Columbia Symphony Orchestra; Igor Stravinsky.
xvii. Bach, Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C major, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II. Glenn Gould.
xviii. Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in C minor, first movement. Philharmonia Orchestra; Otto Klemperer.
xix. Izlel e Delyu Haydutin. Bulgarian song; Valya Balkanska.
xx. Navajo Night Chant. Ambrose Roan Horse, Chester Roan and Tom Roan.
xxi. Holborne, The Fairie Round. Early Music Consort of London; David Munrow.
xxii. Naranaratana Kookokoo (The Cry of the Megapode Bird). Solomon Islands panpipes.
xxiii. Wedding song. A young girl from Huancavelica, Peru.
xxiv. Liu Shui (Flowing Streams). Chinese qin; Guan Pinghu.
xxv. Jaat Kahan Ho, raga Bhairavi. Kesarbai Kerkar.
xxvi. Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground. Blind Willie Johnson.
xxvii. Beethoven, Cavatina, String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130. Budapest String Quartet.

V The Cover

Engraved diagrams show how to position the stylus, play the record from the outside inward at 16⅔ revolutions per minute, and reconstruct the images from the recorded signals. A calibration circle establishes the image proportions. A transition of the hydrogen atom supplies the unit of time; a deposit of uranium-238 provides a means of estimating the record’s age. A pulsar map identifies the location of the solar system relative to fourteen pulsars, with their periods written in binary notation.

From US President Jimmy Carter’s written message carried aboard Voyager: “We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours.”