Golden record classic tee

The Golden Record, a phonograph record carried aboard the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, launched in 1977. It was designed as a message from humanity to any extraterrestrial intelligence that might one day find it, serving as both a time capsule and a cosmic greeting. The record is made of gold-plated copper and attached to the spacecraft’s exterior, traveling now beyond our solar system.

The Golden Record contains sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. It includes greetings in 55 human languages (and one whale language), natural sounds like wind, thunder, and birdsong, 90 minutes of music from around the world — from Bach and Beethoven to Blind Willie Johnson and traditional songs from many cultures — as well as 116 photographs depicting scientific concepts, human life, and the planet itself.

The symbols etched on the record’s surface, like those seen in the image, explain how to play it and where it came from, using universal scientific language — binary, hydrogen atom diagrams, and pulsar maps to locate Earth. It’s one of humanity’s most poetic gestures: a record floating through interstellar space, carrying the story of who we are and where we came from.