Farthest recorded music from Earth

As of 1 December 2017, the Voyager Golden Record was 21,137,874,000 km (13,134,465,968 miles; 141.29796033 AU) from Earth. The 12-inch, gold-plated copper disc, an interstellar "time capsule" from our civilization to any forms of extraterrestrial life that might chance upon it, is mounted on NASA's Voyager 1 space probe – the most remote man-made object – launched on 5 September 1977. The record includes music from the likes of Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven ("Melancholy Blues"), Chuck Berry ("Johnny B Goode") and Blind Willie Johnson ("Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground"), in addition to greetings in 55 languages, 115 electronically encoded images, scientific information and a selection of natural sounds. In September–October 2016, Ozma Records (USA) raised $1,363,037 (£1,110,870) on Kickstarter to produce a limited-edition "40th Anniversary Edition" vinyl box set before announcing in November 2017 that the Voyager Golden Record would be released to the general public in early 2018.

The Voyager Golden Record contains nearly two hours of audio and also features classical pieces from Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig Van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, plus culturally diverse music from Australia to Zaire.

In an article for The New Yorker in August 2017, original producer Timothy Ferris (USA) quashed rumours about one notable omission, reputedly recommended by project leader/astronomer Carl Sagan: "Rumours to the contrary, we did not strive to include The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun", only to be disappointed when we couldn't clear the rights [with EMI]. It's not The Beatles' strongest work, and the witticism of the title, if charming in the short run, seemed unlikely to remain funny for a billion years."

"This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings." – recorded message from Jimmy Carter (US president, 1977–81).

As of 1 December 2017, Voyager 1 – which performed flybys of Jupiter and Saturn in 1979 and 1980, respectively – had been in operation for 40 years 87 days. Voyager 2, launched on 20 August 1977, is also carrying a copy of the Voyager Golden Record. As of the same date, Voyager 2 was 17,453,439,000 km (10,845,064,200 miles; 116.66903357 AU) from Earth.