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# Voyager Has Left the Solar System, Taking With it the Sounds of Space
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-taking-with-it-the-sounds-of-space/
- Published: 2013-09-20T01:00:05.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:17:49.000Z
- Description: As Voyager becomes the first human-made object to enter interstellar space, it also carries the first human-made mixtape destined for such depths of the universe.
- Author: AX Mina
- Tags: Art, NASA, outer space, sound, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:59 (2012, 2013, part 2)

![The golden phonograph on Voyage. Image via NASA.gov.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/09/golden_record_cover.gif)

The golden phonograph on Voyage. (image via NASA.gov)

As Voyager [becomes the first human-made object to enter interstellar space](http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-12/national/42010179%5F1%5Fheliosphere-solar-particles-charged-particles?ref=hyperallergic.com), it also carries the first human-made mixtape destined for such depths of the universe. [A recent article in *Voice of America*](http://www.voanews.com/content/voyager-gold-record-music-interstellar-space/1752640.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) looks at the gold-plated phonograph record made by Timothy Ferris, who recorded a mix of human and animal sounds for any potential extraterrestrials who may come across the space ship.

There are nearly 60 greetings in a variety of languages, [pictures of life, structures and biological systems on our planet](http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/scenes.html?ref=hyperallergic.com), and even a collection of [music from around the world](http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/music.html?ref=hyperallergic.com), from Japanese shakuhachi to Senegalese percussion to one of Bach’s Brandenburg concertos. It’s an intriguing thought experiment: what would extraterrestrial life think of all this? How would they interpret it?

I wandered over to [this *Scientific American* feature](http://www.scientificamerican.com/video.cfm?id=what-does-the-universe-sound-like-2013-09-13&ref=hyperallergic.com) that looks at — er, listens to — the sound of the universe. Sure, you can’t scream in space, but radio signals from the earth and the sun actually have a sound, when translated into human-audible waves. Solar flares and twinkling stars each have specific sounds. And this isn’t just an exercise in synesthesia: auralizing data helps scientists understand the far-away phenomena they’re observing.

Is this [Fluxus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxus?ref=hyperallergic.com) sound art for space junkies? I’m thinking about [Benjamin Patteron’s “Paper Piece](http://www.moma.org/explore/inside%5Fout/2013/07/29/paper-planes-a-flight-through-fluxus-with-benjamin-patterson/?ref=hyperallergic.com),” which was the “newest music” composed of the sound of paper airplanes gliding around the audience. And then there’s [George Maciunas’s “Piano Piece #13 (for Nam June Paik)](http://noiseforairports.com/post/178842028/piano-piece-13-by-george-maciunas?ref=hyperallergic.com),” with the hypnotic sound of piano keys being nailed shut forever. The idea of the aural experiences of a vast and open space that supposedly lacks sound seems dying for a conceptual sound piece. What would a symphony sound like for aliens in a distant land?