The two Voyager probes, launched in 1977, are now in interstellar space beyond our solar system. Each carries a Golden Record, a recording of sounds and encoded images meant to represent Earth and human civilization.

I’ve long intended to listen to the record and yesterday I did. One of the cuts is a 12-minute collage of sounds from our planet. It starts with natural sounds—thunder, crickets, frogs, birds, etc.—and progresses human sounds—a heartbeat, speech, tool use, etc. The sounds appear in roughly historical order, with the sound of a rocket launch toward the end.

At 7:49 there is Morse code on top of other sounds. I was curious what the message was, so I transcribed it: it’s “ad astra per aspera” played twice. This is Latin for “To the stars through hardships.”

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