116 Images of Earth That NASA Wants Aliens to See

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It’s been 38 years since Nasa’s Voyagers 1 and 2 were launched into space, beginning their mission to explore the Solar System and perhaps, one day, be found by intelligent beings in interstellar space. On board is a kind of time capsule—a Golden Record—intended to communicate the story of our world and our existence, to extraterrestrials. Led by Carl Sagan, a committee choose these 116 images to be included in the message:

The Voyager message is stored on a 12-inch gold-plated copper phonograph record and contains these 116 images, plus sounds—music, spoken greetings in more than 50 languages, and a compilation of sounds from Earth. It is meant to explain Earth and the human race.

In 2012, Voyager 1 left the Solar System and entered interstellar space. It will not find extraterrestrial life, but rather, if they exist, the far more advanced beings will have to find the space probe. And, if they do, that means they are incredibly advanced and will have the means to understand NASA’s message.

This collection of sounds and images will most likely outlast all human artifacts on Earth. Here is a full index of the images.