Mozart, Bach and Beethoven leave solar system in Voyager spacecraft
13 September 2013, 12:19 | Updated: 13 September 2013, 12:23
A selection of classical music travelling on the Voyager spacecraft at 100,000mph has made it outside our solar system, and is now 11.6 billion miles away from Earth.
Launched in 1977, Voyager was sent to study the outer planets, and has now travelled further than anyone or anything in history. It's so far away it takes 17 hours for a radio signal sent from the craft to be picked up on Earth.
Along with greetings in 55 languages, music submitted by countries across the world was transferred onto a gold vinyl record to serve as a message to any life form that might someday stumble across the spacecraft. The out-of-this-world playlist includes jazz by Louis Armstrong, traditional tunes from different continents, and classical music by great composers including Bach, Stravinsky, Beethoven and Mozart.
The spacecraft will not approach another star for nearly 40,000 years. By this time, the plutonium power sources will have run out of power and the 20W transmitters will have stopped broadcasting a signal, so there's no way of knowing whether alien life forms will have discovered the music - or worked out how to play it.
Picture: NASA
Full list of music on the Voyager spacecraft
Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement
Java, court gamelan, "Kinds of Flowers," recorded by Robert Brown
Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle
Zaire, Pygmy girls' initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull
Australia, Aborigine songs, Morning Star and Devil Bird, recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes
Mexico, El Cascabel, performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México
Johnny B. Goode, Chuck Berry
New Guinea, men's house song, recorded by Robert MacLennan
Japan, shakuhachi, Tsuru No Sugomori ("Crane's Nest,") performed by Goro Yamaguchi
Bach, Gavotte en rondeaux from Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin
Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria
Georgian S.S.R., chorus, Tchakrulo
Peru, panpipes and drum
Melancholy Blues, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven
Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes
Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance
Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1
Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, First Movement
Bulgaria, Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin
Navajo Indians, Night Chant
Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, The Fairie Round
Solomon Islands, panpipes
Peru, wedding song
China, ch'in, Flowing Streams
India, raga, Jaat Kahan Ho
Dark Was the Night, Blind Willie Johnson
Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B flat, Opus 130, Cavatina
