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Hear the music NASA launched into space to communicate with aliens

NASA launched the Voyager 1 space probe in 1977 to explore the boundaries of our solar system. Aside from beaming back key data on the solar system, the handy little ship was even able to record actual sounds for us from space.  It’s been traveling now for over 37 years.

In the event the craft ever bumps into aliens, NASA loaded it with something called The Golden Record, which tells the story of life on earth by way of music, human language/greetings, animal sounds and images.

“The greatest interest might be in communicating information on music,” said astronomer Carl Sagan, who led the project.

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

Musically, according to Death And Taxes, the album contains just three tracks from Western songwriting: “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry, “Melancholy Blues” by Louis Armstrong and “Dark Was the Night” by Blind Willie Johnson. The remainder of the disk is mostly made up of European classical music.

The Golden Record begins with a greeting message to aliens, which is kind of surreal to hear:

The animal/nature sounds start here:

And the music starts here:

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