Simply put, a time capsule is basically a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists or historians. They’re sometimes created and buried during celebrations such as a World’s Fair, a cornerstone laying for a building or at other events. Continue reading to see what they found inside one of them.

Currently, four time capsules are “buried” in space. The two Pioneer Plaques and the two Voyager Golden Records have been attached to spacecraft for the possible benefit of spacefarers in the distant future. A fifth time capsule, the KEO satellite, will be launched in 2014, carrying individual messages from Earth’s inhabitants addressed to earthlings around the year 52,000, when it is due to return to Earth. The International Time Capsule Society was created to maintain a global database of all existing time capsules.