Contents Of The Voyager Golden Record

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Forty years ago this week, NASA launched Voyager 2, which carries a gold-plated record featuring pictures and sounds from Earth as well as scientific information, all of which was carefully compiled in anticipation of a possible extraterrestrial encounter. Here are the contents of the record:


Recording of someone saying Hey, anybody there? in 55 different languages


Some annoying interludes of human laughter and whale song in between tracks


Jimmy Carter explaining what peanuts are for three hours


Variety of photos capturing Earth’s most breathtaking hunks


A desperate plea for oil


Fair use disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976


A greeting card signed by all 4,136,542,070 people alive in 1977


Anatomical breakdown of how Carl Sagan’s body works and how he reproduces


Picture of a mushroom cloud in case the aliens get any ideas


Fold-out album sleeve containing every significant piece of art ever created


Picture of the winner of a 1977 KISS FM contest


Detailed explanation of the infield fly rule


Instructions on how to build a turntable to play the record