10 National Geographic Photos That Explain Earth to Extraterrestrials

How did this photograph of Jane Goodall end up in outer space?

In August and September of 1977 the twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched. Their mission was to explore our solar system “from Jupiter to Neptune” before eventually leaving it—heading into interstellar space and to the truly unexplored beyond. Fixed to each spacecraft was a gold-coated record containing information about life on Earth—like a message in a bottle for any intelligent life that might discover it.

The record contained, among other things, an audio montage titled “Sounds of Earth,” Beethoven’s Cavatina, greetings in 54 languages, and, most importantly to us, photographs that visually communicate facts about the physics, biology, sociology, and beauty of

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