A Message to the Stars

Listening to an Archive on 4, "Carl Sagan: A Personal Voyage". Professor Brian Cox looks back at the work of his all-time science hero, the American astronomer Carl Sagan. As well as a well respected science career, Sagan is best known for his work in bringing the joy and wonder of science to as wide an audience as possible. And who can forget that theme music for Cosmos!

Sagan was also responsible for the "message to the stars" records. Flying aboard Voyagers 1 and 2 are identical "golden" records, carrying the story of Earth far into deep space. The 12 inch gold-plated copper discs contain greetings in 60 languages, samples of music from different cultures and eras, and natural and man-made sounds from Earth. They also contain electronic information that an advanced technological civilization could convert into diagrams and photographs.

 

You can hear the show at:
Archive on 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jkv2j

So today a more optimistic poem.

A Message to the Stars

The record sent off into deepest space
Within Voyager’s journey to distant star
A tale told of our earth, our own place
In the cosmos, a blue dot seen afar

A present from a small distant world
A token of sounds, science, images
Our thoughts and feelings unfurled
Into the vast cosmos, our seven ages

Music sounds across the ocean of night
Songs of distant earth, emotion’s voices
A glimpse of humanity, of a candle’s light
And pray that we make the right choices

A message to the stars, the cosmic deep
Rejoice! And Carl Sagan’s vision keep