The Voyager spacecrafts were launched by the United States in 1977 to explore our Solar System’s gas giants – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – and then interstellar space, where they’re still gathering valuable information. In addition to their mission of exploration, they’re also on a mission of communication: each craft is equipped with a ‘golden record’ featuring sounds and images of life on Earth, and information about our place in the cosmos, intended as a message to any extraterrestrial beings that might find them.