Each record is encased in a protective aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and needle. Instructions, in symbolic language, explain the origin of the spacecraft and indicate how the record is to be played. The 115 images are encoded in analog form. The remainder of the record is in audio, designed to be played at 16⅔ revolutions per second. It contains the spoken greetings, beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer about six thousand years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect. Following the section on the sounds of Earth, there is an eclectic 90-minute selection of music, including both Eastern and Western classics and a variety of ethnic music. Once the Voyager spacecraft leave the solar system (by 1990, both will be beyond the orbit of Pluto), they will find themselves in empty space. It will be forty thousand years before they come within a light year of a star, called AC + 79 3888, and millions of years before either might make a close approach to any other planetary system. As Carl Sagan has noted, “The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet.” LANGUAGES ON VOYAGER RECORD Sumerian Akkadian Hittite Hebrew Aramaic English Portuguese Cantonese Russian Thai Arabic Roumanian French Burmese Spanish Indonesian Kechua Dutch German Bengali Urdu Hindi Vietnamese Sinhalese Greek Latin Japanese Punjabi Turkish Welsh Italian Nguni Sotho Wu Korean Armenian Polish Netali Mandarin Gujorati Ila (Zambia) Nyanja Swedish Ukrainian Persian Serbian Luganada Amoy (Min dialect) Marathi Kannada Telugu Oriya Hungarian Czech Rajasthani SOUNDS OF EARTH ON VOYAGER RECORD Whales Planets (music) Volcanoes Mud pots Rain Surf Crickets, frogs Birds Hyena Elephant Chimpanzee Wild dog Footsteps and heartbeats Laughter Fire Tools Dogs, domestic Herding sheep Blacksmith shop Sawing Riveter Morse code Ships Horse and cart Horse and carriage Train whistle Tractor Truck Auto gears Jet Lift-off Saturn 5 rocket Kiss Baby Life signs—EEG, EKG Pulsart VOYAGER RECORD PHOTOGRAPH INDEX