The Voyager Golden Records are two identical phonograph records which were included aboard the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. The records contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form who may find them. The records are a time capsule.
The Voyager Golden Record
Cover of the Voyager Golden Record
Preparation for the record's packaging before the launch of Voyager 2
A time capsule is a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a deliberate method of communication with future people, and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians. The preservation of holy relics dates back for millennia, but the practice of preparing and preserving a collection of everyday artifacts and messages to the future appears to be a more recent practice. Time capsules are sometimes created and buried during celebrations such as a world's fair, a cornerstone laying for a building, or at other ceremonies.
Time capsule plaque in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with instructions for the capsule to be recovered and opened upon the city's bicentennial, on July 4, 2023
The Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument located in Amarillo, Texas, holds four time capsules in stainless steel intended to be opened after durations of 25, 50, 100, and 1,000 years after they were locked in 1968.
Herrick Tower time capsule, Adrian College, Michigan, 2009–2059
Miscellaneous objects prepared for the Westinghouse Time Capsule, created for the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair, intended to be opened in 5000 years