Only one human-touched object has ever entered interstellar space: NASA’s Voyager 1, bearing with it greetings to extraterrestrials in the form of a Golden Record.

A special exhibit at Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections will feature one of the handful of Golden Record covers that remain on Earth, courtesy of Ann Druyan, never before on public display.

The multi-media exhibit will include images and sounds from the Golden Record, as well as the original book by Isaac Newton that was photographed for the Golden Record and a first-edition, signed copy of Carl Sagan’s “Murmurs of Earth.” A copy of the Voyager Golden Record boxed set, newly issued by Ozma Records and donated by producers Timothy Daly and David Pescovitz, will also be on display.

The free exhibit will be open on Thursday, Oct. 19 from 9 am – 5 pm, Friday, Oct. 20 from 9 am – 5 pm, and Saturday, Oct. 21 from 11 am – 5 pm, on level 2B, Kroch Library.

The pioneering NASA Voyagers 1 and 2 were launched in 1977 from Cape Canaveral to explore the solar system. They are still the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune. The gravitational assist from Jupiter that slingshot the Voyagers on the first reconnaissance of the outer solar system, propels them on a much greater odyssey throughout the Milky Way Galaxy for the next several billion years.  With that unprecedented opportunity in mind, each Voyager bears a complex message affixed to its side in the form of the Golden Record, a 12-inch gold-covered copper record containing greetings, images of life on Earth, world music and other sounds of this planet. They have a shelf-life of one to five billion years.