Let It Be…. ALIENS!
NASA To Transmit Beatle Song To North Star
Friday February 1, 2008
You may remember that old joke from Saturday Night Live about NASA sending a probe into space containing artifacts of humanity, including a Chuck Berry record. The response from the aliens who found the space museum: “Send more Chuck Berry.”
So you can only imagine what those creatures from the void will say when they hear this. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has confirmed it plans to beam a single song into the atmosphere that will eventually travel farther than any spacecraft in history.
And the ditty chosen to make this momentous journey seems more than appropriate. It’s the Beatles’ classic “Across the Universe” from the Let It Be album. The tentative ‘launch’ date is set for February 4th, 40 years to the day from when the Fab Four recorded it in 1968. The song will be sent at exactly 7pm, and the iconic tune will also be spun on radio stations around the world to mark the moment.
The relatively cheap project, which involves no space shots or real hardware, is part of the celebrations marking the organization’s 50th anniversary. The survivors of the most famous group in music history are thrilled with the choice. “Send my love to the aliens,” jokes Paul McCartney.
Yoko Ono, John Lennon’s widow, was typically spacey in her response. “I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe.”
NASA has sent songs into space before, most notably to wake up crews on missions. But it’s the first time any piece of music has ever been aimed at someone – or something – else.
The tune will trave to the North Star, the brightest object in the night sky. How far away is it? The agency estimates its target, actually named Polaris, is about 2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles from earth, or roughly 2.5 quadrillion miles away.
How long will it take before any alien ears actually get to hear it? NASA estimates the song will make a very long journey on its way to number one – some 431 years, arriving in 2439.
Of course, given the popularity of the lads from Liverpool, chances are they’ll still be putting out new Beatle compilation CDs back here on Earth by the time it gets there. Although it’s not clear if the group will be available for download over the Internet by then.