What's Inside the Voyager Spacecraft Time Capsules (4K UHD)

In 1977, a journey unlike any other began when NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 set off on a grand tour of the solar system. After successfully capturing thousands of incredible images of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the initial mission was complete, but the journey had only just begun. Each probe was on a path that would ultimately lead them beyond the bubble of hot gas that surrounds the solar system, called the heliosphere, and into the interstellar medium, the region in between the stars. As of February 2022, nearly 45 years after they were launched, Voyager 1 and 2 are still functioning and regularly communicating with Earth as they blaze a lonely path towards distant alien stars. An endless journey that won't bring them close to any other known object for at least 40,000 years. Both the Voyager spacecraft are predicted to fall silent in the next few years or so, as their power supply slowly depletes. Soon they will become nothing but drifting relics of a mysterious civilization that dared to explore beyond their horizon. The mystery of where the probes originated could be solved, however, because if an extraterrestrial space-faring race were ever to find them, aboard each of the Voyager probes is a special golden record containing information about us, our world, and our solar system. The golden record can be thought of as a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate the story of our existence to any extraterrestrials that might come across the probes at some point in the future. The message is carried by a phonograph record, a 12-inch gold-plated copper disc containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. The disc is also sealed in a golden cover with a cartridge and a needle. Plus, inscribed onto the surface are instructions in symbolic language that explain the origin of the spacecraft and indicate how the record can be played. Stored upon the disc is the audio of 55 different spoken greetings, beginning in Arcadian, which was spoken in Sumer about 6,000 years ago, and ending in Wu, a modern Chinese dialect. There is a 90-minute selection of music from different cultures and eras, as well as a selection of sounds, revealing crickets, chimpanzees, trains, and Morse code. But it's not just the sounds of Earth captured on the discs. Extraterrestrials could also decode specific audio wavelengths using the instructions found on the case to view images depicting our world in a variety of ways. The following 116 images are carried by both Voyager 1 and 2 as they drift endlessly through interstellar space. As you observe them, consider what it might mean if an intelligent extraterrestrial life-form were to discover the discs. Consider how we would react if we found a similar alien time capsule passing Earth. These are the images that, according to NASA and Carl Sagan in 1977, best represent our world and everything important about it. Both the Voyager spacecraft are predicted to fall silent in the next few years or so, as their power supply slowly depletes. In 38,200 years from now, Voyager 1 will come within 1.7 light-years of an obscure star called AC plus 79 3888. Voyager 2, on the other hand, will come within 1.7 light-years of a star called Ross 248 in around 40,000 years. Although they will both likely have been long forgotten by then, they will still be carrying the gold records. Nobody knows what our future holds, but strapped to the side of two interstellar explorers is our story glistening in the light of alien stars. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did then please tap the like button and subscribe. If you want to continue exploring our magnificent universe then why not watch this video about how we can now observe the surface of the sun. Thank you so much for watching and we hope to see you all next time. We know precisely what it looks like as it passes through the blue sky above. We even know what it looks like from the position of other planets within the solar system. But what does it look like up close? What do we see when we peer at the surface? As the only star we can observe in detail, the Sun provides a basis for our understanding of other stars. And the better we understand other stars, the more we know about the Milky Way. In recent years, NASA has succeeded in touching our closest stellar neighbor when its Parker Solar Probe flew through its hostile atmosphere and captured this incredible time-lapse footage.