The message was carried into space by the Voyager probes

Jul 28, 2015 09:36 GMT  ·  By

In 1977, NASA's twin Voyager probes were launched into space from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Voyager 2 left Earth on August 20 and Voyager 1 followed soon after, on September 5. Both spacecraft are still operational, collecting scientific data and communicating with base. 

When launched, the Voyager probes were only intended to study Jupiter and Saturn. The spacecraft had no trouble completing this mission and then started exploring other regions of the Solar System.

Having imaged and collected data about its primary targets, Voyager 2 moved on to studying Uranus and Neptune. As for Voyager 1, it went on to study the heliosphere, which astronomers describe as a magnetic bubble encompassing our Solar System, solar wind, and the whole solar magnetic field.

Come August 2012, Voyager 1 made it all the way through the heliosphere, entering interstellar space. Mission scientists at NASA expect that, sometime in 2016, its twin Voyager 2 will follow its lead.

The probes carry a message to aliens

Scientific instruments aside, NASA's Voyager robotic probes both carry a message to aliens. You know, just in case they chance to come across an alien civilization while hanging about the cosmos.

These so-called Golden Records aboard the Voyager spacecraft are a time capsule of sorts. Inscribed on them are pictures, music, sounds from here on Earth and even greetings in 55 different languages. The purpose of these messages: let aliens know that we exist and reveal a bit of what we are like.

“The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record - a 12-inch [30.5 centimeters] gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.”

“Each record is encased in a protective aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and a needle. Instructions, in symbolic language, explain the origin of the spacecraft and indicate how the record is to be played,” explain mission scientists at NASA.

You can listen to this message on SoundCloud

True, the greetings and the Earth sounds inscribed on the Golden Records carried by NASA's Voyager robotic probes have for some time now been made available by the space agency on its website.

The problem: the recordings weren't made into a proper playlist, and so listening to them involved a whole lot of clicking back and forth.

Well, worry about the integrity of your index finger no longer as NASA has at long last uploaded the Greetings from Earth and Sounds from Earth carried by the Voyager mission on SoundCloud.

The recordings are available below, so sit back, hit play and try to image what being an alien listening to these strange sounds would be like.