It’s been a big month for alien enthusiasts. First Stephen Hawking backed a $100 million fund to get serious about our search for extraterrestrial life, now NASA has posted the ‘Golden Record’ up on Soundcloud.
What is the ‘Golden Record’? It’s the collection of sounds that NASA selected to be sent on the Voyager spacecraft that launched in 1977. The intention was to take impressions of our world right out to the edge of interstellar space.
Carl Sagan chaired the committee to decide what sounds were included. He said of the effort:
The spacecraft will encountered the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet.
Those of us still living on what Sagan called “the pale blue dot” can now easily listen to the sounds on the Golden Record. They’ve been on the Web for a while but in poor quality and scattered around, that’s why NASA has finally put high-quality versions online.
It’s a glorious thing. I recommend it as inspiring soundtrack for your day. Though maybe skip the track of the baby crying.
➤ The Golden Record [NASA on SoundCloud via PopSci]
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