The Golden Disk And Record
You’re currently looking at the Golden Disk (left) and the Golden Record (right) which was sent aboard the spacecraft Voyager 1 – launched on September 5, 1977 by NASA.
The Golden Disk contains instructions on how to decode the message and the cosmic address of our planet while The Golden Record consists of 115 analog-encoded photographs, greetings in 55 languages, a 12-minute montage of sounds on Earth and 90 minutes of music. The images show the beautiful sceneries and wonders of our planets and most importantly ourselves. The sounds includes sounds of waves, ocean, crickets chirping, baby crying, heartbeats of humans and a mother kissing her baby.
As of 2023 CE, Voyager 1 has exited our solar system and is more than 23 Billion kilometers away drifting aimlessly towards it’s unknown destination and by 2030 we’ll lose contact with the spacecraft altogether.
One day, perhaps billions of years from now, aliens might be surprised to run across an old spaceship from Earth. Far from home, the ancient probe is cold, its nuclear power source spent long ago; an iconic white antenna points silently into the void, beaming no data to the species that made it. Yet this Voyager may speak to its finders. A golden record is fixed to the side of the probe. If ET can decipher it, they might be surprised again, because Voyager has something to tell—and it’s a Story.
A story of how a piece of rock nurtured lifeforms, from a primordial soup of volcanic ash and water to single celled organisms to creatures this complex. A story of a species which looks up to the sky, wondering if anyone is out there. A story of how we strive to find neighbors different yet similar to us.
Voyager 1 has a story to tell. A Story of the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.