Beam a message into space for Voyager's 40th anniversary
Inspired by Voyager's Golden Record, NASA wants you to send an uplifting #MessageToVoyager via social media.
Forty years ago, a team led by astronomer Carl Sagan and his wife Ann Druyan curated the Golden Record, which was considered humanity's message to space.
The 12-inch, gold-plated copper disk contained 115 images and a variety of natural sounds made by the sea, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals. The record also contained music from different cultures and eras, as well as spoken greetings from people in 55 languages.
The record (one disk for each of Voyager's two space probes) is continuing on its way out of the solar system and serves as a kind of multimedia time capsule for any intelligent extraterrestrial life forms or future humans who may one day discover it.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Golden Record being sent into space, NASA is inviting space fans to send a short, positive message that could end up in space.
After input from the Voyager team and a public vote, one of the submitted messages will be selected by NASA to "beam into interstellar space" on Sept. 5 -- the 40th anniversary of Voyager 1's launch.
Messages can have a maximum of 60 characters and be posted on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+ or Tumblr using the hashtag #MessageToVoyager.
NASA is accepting submissions to the #MessageToVoyager campaign via social media until Aug. 15.
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