Latest news with #GoldenRecords
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Golden Records tell the story of Earth. Will alien worlds ever find them?
In 1977, NASA launched Voyagers 1 and 2 from Cape Canaveral, Florida into space to embark on a grand tour of the far reaches of our solar system. Mounted on board each probe was a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk—a cosmic 'message in a bottle' engraved with sights, sounds, and depictions of life on Earth, collectively known as the Golden Records—on the slim chance some far-off alien civilization might discover them. And in Disney and Pixar's animated film Elio, in theaters June 20, that's exactly what happens when main character Elio encounters aliens who believe he is Earth's leader. 'It's meant to be a sort of a letter of introduction to any culture who might find the probe,' says Bethany Ehlmann, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology and a 2013 National Geographic Emerging Explorer, of the real-life Golden Records. Though these gilded greetings were partly intended for an alien audience, they mostly served as a message to humans and our tiny blue marble planet. 'It's a love letter to Earth and all that we have come through to get to the point where we could send these probes to understand our solar system.' But where are the Golden Records now—and how much longer are they intended to last in space? We spoke to the experts, including Ehlmann, to find out. When tasked with figuring out what to include in the intergalactic mixtape aboard the Voyager probes, renowned astronomer Carl Sagan assembled a team of scientists, artists, and engineers. For a true depiction of life on Earth aboard humankind's most distant physical emissary, the team included a variety of sounds associated with daily life and nature, like bird calls, humpback whale songs, children's laughter, footsteps, heartbeats, brain wave scans, and a kiss. There are also 90 minutes of music contained on the disk, including Western classical compositions from Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Stravinsky, Senegalese percussion music, Australian Aboriginal songs, and Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode.' (The close of cosmos, and golden voices in the stars.) The carefully thought-out record, designed to endure space travel for billions of years, also consists of spoken greetings in 55 modern and ancient languages, as well as 115 analog-encoded photographs of Earth and its inhabitants. Engraved on the cover of these records is a map to help find one's way to Earth relative to nearby known, flashing, dense cores of stars called pulsars. There are etched diagrams of a hydrogen atom—the most common element in the universe—and instructions for playing each record. Each disk is enclosed in a protective, gold-plated aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and a needle to play it. "The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring civilizations in interstellar space," Sagan, leader of the Voyager Golden Record project, wrote. "But the launching of this 'bottle' into the cosmic 'ocean' says something very hopeful about life on this planet." (Dear Voyagers: How your billion-year journey carries true love.) Over the years, the Voyager probes flew by the solar system's most distant four planets at a rate of 35,000 miles per hour, sending back detailed views of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and their moons. Voyager 2 flying by Uranus and Neptune is the only time humanity has seen these worlds up close. After completing their primary missions to collectively fly by all four outer planets in 1989, the twin probes kept chugging along through the vast outer reaches of the solar system. Voyager 1 and 2 exited the solar system and entered interstellar space in 2012 and 2018, respectively. At more than 15 billion miles from Earth, Voyager 1 has become the most distant human-made object in space. Voyager 2, in second place, is now about 13 billion miles away. The interstellar environment they're in contains a stew of cosmic gas, dust, and rays. The twin Voyager probes are equipped with radiation-resistant parts, but the onslaught of charged particles in their current neck of the woods still pose a threat to their aging electronics. Both Voyager spacecrafts are still collecting and sending back data, updating humans on their intergalactic adventures, albeit slowly—it takes nearly 20 hours for these signals to reach Earth, given the immense distance they need to travel. We're now reaching the end of the Voyager missions, as the twin probes' plutonium power supplies are running out of juice. The Voyager team is attempting to extend their lifetime for as long as they can by shutting down non-essential instruments like heaters to conserve power. 'More than 47 years into the mission, there's very little power left,' says Suzanne "Suzy" Dodd, the current project manager for the Voyager missions. 'The goal of the mission is to get it to 50 years.' Even after the probe's science mission ends, though, the Golden Records will keep quietly drifting further and further into the cosmic abyss, likely for millions and even billions of years.'Long after we've lost communications with the spacecraft, it'll still be traveling with this record—a time capsule,' Dodd says. She remarks that it's exciting 'to think about a little piece of us, a little piece of what Earth and humanity is all about, traveling around the center of our galaxy to be found by whatever being might be out there.' But, as Dodd points out, there are enormous physical and chronological distances involved. It's going to take around 40,000 years for the probes to drift into the vicinity of any other star system, when Voyager 1 will pass within 1.6 light-years of the star Gliese 445. Around the same time, Voyager 2 will be within 1.7 light-years of the star Ross 248. The Golden Records have left a huge cosmic impact. According to Ehlmann, most spacecrafts that followed the Voyager mission included some sort of message from our Earthly abode. 'People sometimes think of science as a cold and calculating endeavor, but really it's the expression of curiosity and awe,' she says. 'It's an ability to leave your mark in the universe.' And almost fifty years after they first took flight, our pair of plucky robot emissaries to the stars continues embarking on the deepest journey ever into space. 'Who knows? The Voyager probes, a million years from now, may end up in some alien museum,' Ehlmann says. 'It's exciting to imagine.'
National Geographic
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- National Geographic
The Golden Records tell the story of Earth. Will alien worlds ever find them?
In 1977, NASA launched two 12-inch gold-plated copper disks filled with the sounds of children's laughter, heartbeats, and bird calls. Is their time in space running out? The Golden Record carried by Voyager 1 and 2. Photographs of Jupiter by Voyager 1 on March 24, 1979 and Uranus by Voyager 2 on January 24, 1986. Photo Illustration by Jesse Barber, National Geographic; Image Sources from Nat Geo Image Collection, NASA/JPL In 1977, NASA launched Voyagers 1 and 2 from Cape Canaveral, Florida into space to embark on a grand tour of the far reaches of our solar system. Mounted on board each probe was a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk—a cosmic 'message in a bottle' engraved with sights, sounds, and depictions of life on Earth, collectively known as the Golden Records—on the slim chance some far-off alien civilization might discover them. And in Disney and Pixar's animated film Elio, in theaters June 20, that's exactly what happens when main character Elio encounters aliens who believe he is Earth's leader. 'It's meant to be a sort of a letter of introduction to any culture who might find the probe,' says Bethany Ehlmann, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology and a 2013 National Geographic Emerging Explorer, of the real-life Golden Records. Though these gilded greetings were partly intended for an alien audience, they mostly served as a message to humans and our tiny blue marble planet. 'It's a love letter to Earth and all that we have come through to get to the point where we could send these probes to understand our solar system.' But where are the Golden Records now—and how much longer are they intended to last in space? We spoke to the experts, including Ehlmann, to find out. When tasked with figuring out what to include in the intergalactic mixtape aboard the Voyager probes, renowned astronomer Carl Sagan assembled a team of scientists, artists, and engineers. For a true depiction of life on Earth aboard humankind's most distant physical emissary, the team included a variety of sounds associated with daily life and nature, like bird calls, humpback whale songs, children's laughter, footsteps, heartbeats, brain wave scans, and a kiss. There are also 90 minutes of music contained on the disk, including Western classical compositions from Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Stravinsky, Senegalese percussion music, Australian Aboriginal songs, and Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode.' (The close of cosmos, and golden voices in the stars.) The carefully thought-out record, designed to endure space travel for billions of years, also consists of spoken greetings in 55 modern and ancient languages, as well as 115 analog-encoded photographs of Earth and its inhabitants. Engraved on the cover of these records is a map to help find one's way to Earth relative to nearby known, flashing, dense cores of stars called pulsars. There are etched diagrams of a hydrogen atom—the most common element in the universe—and instructions for playing each record. Each disk is enclosed in a protective, gold-plated aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and a needle to play it. "The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring civilizations in interstellar space," Sagan, leader of the Voyager Golden Record project, wrote. "But the launching of this 'bottle' into the cosmic 'ocean' says something very hopeful about life on this planet." (Dear Voyagers: How your billion-year journey carries true love.) A far-out cosmic road trip Over the years, the Voyager probes flew by the solar system's most distant four planets at a rate of 35,000 miles per hour, sending back detailed views of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and their moons. Voyager 2 flying by Uranus and Neptune is the only time humanity has seen these worlds up close. After completing their primary missions to collectively fly by all four outer planets in 1989, the twin probes kept chugging along through the vast outer reaches of the solar system. Voyager 1 and 2 exited the solar system and entered interstellar space in 2012 and 2018, respectively. At more than 15 billion miles from Earth, Voyager 1 has become the most distant human-made object in space. Voyager 2, in second place, is now about 13 billion miles away. The interstellar environment they're in contains a stew of cosmic gas, dust, and rays. The twin Voyager probes are equipped with radiation-resistant parts, but the onslaught of charged particles in their current neck of the woods still pose a threat to their aging electronics. Both Voyager spacecrafts are still collecting and sending back data, updating humans on their intergalactic adventures, albeit slowly—it takes nearly 20 hours for these signals to reach Earth, given the immense distance they need to travel. We're now reaching the end of the Voyager missions, as the twin probes' plutonium power supplies are running out of juice. The Voyager team is attempting to extend their lifetime for as long as they can by shutting down non-essential instruments like heaters to conserve power. 'More than 47 years into the mission, there's very little power left,' says Suzanne "Suzy" Dodd, the current project manager for the Voyager missions. 'The goal of the mission is to get it to 50 years.' Even after the probe's science mission ends, though, the Golden Records will keep quietly drifting further and further into the cosmic abyss, likely for millions and even billions of years.'Long after we've lost communications with the spacecraft, it'll still be traveling with this record—a time capsule,' Dodd says. She remarks that it's exciting 'to think about a little piece of us, a little piece of what Earth and humanity is all about, traveling around the center of our galaxy to be found by whatever being might be out there.' But, as Dodd points out, there are enormous physical and chronological distances involved. It's going to take around 40,000 years for the probes to drift into the vicinity of any other star system, when Voyager 1 will pass within 1.6 light-years of the star Gliese 445. Around the same time, Voyager 2 will be within 1.7 light-years of the star Ross 248. The legacy of the Golden Records The Golden Records have left a huge cosmic impact. According to Ehlmann, most spacecrafts that followed the Voyager mission included some sort of message from our Earthly abode. 'People sometimes think of science as a cold and calculating endeavor, but really it's the expression of curiosity and awe,' she says. 'It's an ability to leave your mark in the universe.' And almost fifty years after they first took flight, our pair of plucky robot emissaries to the stars continues embarking on the deepest journey ever into space. 'Who knows? The Voyager probes, a million years from now, may end up in some alien museum,' Ehlmann says. 'It's exciting to imagine.' Disney and Pixar's "Elio" is in theaters June 20, 2025. Get tickets now.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Space Waltz: ESA to put Strauss among the stars on his 200th birthday
What better way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of a world-renowned composer than to ensure his music has a truly universal audience. Johann Strauss II was born in 1825 and two centuries later he is the result of a groundbreaking decision to correct what the Vienna Tourist Board and the European Space Agency (ESA) are calling an historic mistake in the transmission of Earthly culture. In 1977, NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 probes were sent into space with 27 pieces of music, referred to as the 'Golden Records'. They were records designed to showcase mankind's greatest achievements. But The Danube Waltz, despite its seminal appearance in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey which was made a decade before the launch the Voyager probes, was not included – something many Austrians and classical music fans alike feel is wholly unjust. A NASA committee selected 115 images from Earth to be encoded into the golden record attached to both probes, plus a collection of sounds from nature, then a catalogue of music was added from different cultures and eras including Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. But there was no room for Herr Strauss. "The absence of the most famous of all waltzes from the 1977 Voyager Golden Record is a cosmic mistake that we are correcting with 'Waltz into Space'," says Norbert Kettner, Director of the Vienna Tourist Board. "At a distance of more than 25 billion kilometers from Earth, Voyager 1 is the most distant man-made object in space. As part of our mission with the European Space Agency, we are sending 'By the Beautiful Blue Danube' in the direction of the space probe that is already traveling through interstellar space." The European Space Agency is making this possible while marking their own special anniversary. 'In 2025 we have a wonderful double anniversary," writes ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher in a statement released today. "The 200th anniversary of the birth of Johann Strauss II and the 50th anniversary of the ESA. I am delighted that we can celebrate both by broadcasting a live performance of the Danube Waltz into space from our Cebreros ground station." At a press conference held on Monday morning at a 70s-themed meeting space at Vienna's Hoxton hotel, Norbert Kettner sat alongside Mehran Sarkarati from the European Space Agency, and Vienna Symphony Orchestra chief Jan Nast to outline that an hour-long "interstellar concert" by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra will take place on May 31, 2025 at 20:30 CET at the MAK Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. Conducted by Petr Popelka, the orchestra will perform a selection of galactic-themed works culminating in the Danube Waltz, which will be transmitted in real time to the European Space Agency's (ESA) Deep Space Antenna DSA 2 in Cebreros, Spain. From there, the waltz will be transmitted into the universe as an electromagnetic wave at the speed of light in the direction of Voyager 1. 23 hours later, the signal will catch up with NASA's space probe, which has been traveling since 1977 to convey earthly masterpieces to what planetary scientist Carl Sagan called "advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space." According to the mission's press release on Monday, ESA Deep Space Antenna DSA 2 "is primarily used for deep space missions, in other words for communicating with objects in orbits more than two million kilometres away from Earth. In order to transmit the Danube Waltz, the signal will be sent into space as an electromagnetic wave at the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s – the fastest speed possible in our universe). It will reach the orbit of the Moon after approximately 1.34 seconds, the orbit of Mars after 4 minutes and 20 seconds, the orbit of Jupiter after 37 minutes, the orbit of Neptune after 4 hours and the limits of our solar system, called the heliopause, after 17 hours. The signal will then leave our solar system. After 23 hours and 3 minutes, it will catch up with Voyager 1 and venture even deeper into interstellar space. Strauss' waltz will then travel through space forever." The historic concert will also be streamed live. "We want to allow as many people as possible to experience this absolutely unique event live," said Kettner at the press conference. "In Vienna, there will be a public screening at the Danube Canal for the local community, in New York at Bryant Park, and in Spain right next to the antenna." "This broadcast will be a special moment," writes ESA's Aschbacher, "that will show that music – just like space – connects all of humanity.' The mission can also be followed via a global livestream on and the Vienna Tourist Board's Instagram channel. Music lovers can find their own place amongst the stars by sponsoring one of the 13,743 notes from Strauss' masterpiece through the 'Space Notes' initiative on the mission's website. It's free to participate and all supporters' names will symbolically accompany the work into space. One of the first ambassadors is Brian W. Cook, who was an assistant director to Stanley Kubrick on three pictures. And it's certainly the Kubrick connection that cemented the most famous Waltz as a true space anthem. NASA gave the piece another airing when the space shuttle 'Discovery' docked at the International Space Station (ISS) in the most Kubrick year possible, 2001.
