Posted on 02/01/2008 3:26:34 PM PST by Samwise
The Beatles are about to become radio stars in a whole new way.
NASA on Monday will broadcast the Beatles' song "Across the Universe" across the galaxy to Polaris, the North Star.
This first-ever beaming of a radio song by the space agency directly into deep space is nostalgia-driven. It celebrates the 40th anniversary of the song, the 45th anniversary of NASA's Deep Space Network, which communicates with its distant probes, and the 50th anniversary of NASA.
"Send my love to the aliens," Paul McCartney told NASA through a Beatles historian. "All the best, Paul."
The song, written by McCartney and John Lennon, may have a ticket to ride and will be flying at the speed of light. But it will take 431 years along a long and winding road to reach its final destination. That's because Polaris is 2.5 quadrillion miles away.
NASA loaded an MP3 of the song, just under four minutes in its original version, and will transmit it digitally at 7 p.m. EST Monday from its giant antenna in Madrid, Spain. But if you wanted to hear it on Polaris, you would need an antenna and a receiver to convert it back to music, the same way people receive satellite television.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Will they play it backwards as well?
Seems that CETI recently determined that radio signals from earth fade into noise after about a light year. If true, this is a complete waste of money.
.wonk t’nod I
“Send my love to the aliens,”
They would love to have you over for dinner, Sir Paul.
Remember to bring some fava beans and a nice chianti for them as well.
“will transmit it digitally”
marvin rocks.
I think this line from the article is an eye opener
“Perhaps coincidentally, the song’s launching comes a day before the release of the DVD of the Julie Taymor movie named after the Beatles hit”
if they wanted a song from Feb 68 i would suggest, ‘ Hey Bulldog’ with the lines ,’you can talk to me, if you’re lonely you can talk to me.
but i am just a fan what do i know?
Doesn’t NASA have better things to do with our money?
“Seems that CETI recently determined that radio signals from earth fade into noise after about a light year. If true, this is a complete waste of money.”
Actually reassuring to me, as saying “here we are” to whatever the Hell is out there seems like a stupid idea.
Predator and prey is probably pretty standard fare in the galaxy.
AND the idea that a expansionist xenophobic (by which I mean “kill everything not like us”) society managed to conquer its own planet and expand to others is not implausible in the least.
I mean, think if Islam conquered the Earth.
Well, eventually (assuming its luddite tendacies did not occur), they’d look elsewhere to spread their disease, er, their religion — by force if necessary.
Very possible.
Saying “over here, over here!” to a potentially hostile galaxy just struck me as a tad bit naive.
And the message comes back: “Send more Chuck Berry.”
Did you see the movie? We saw it. My teenager loved it. Hubby hated it. I was skeptical before we went. I thought it was OK. We probably buy it when it hits the mark-down bin.
Way kool.
saw the movie with my 17 y.o. daughter, we thought it was fab and will get it when it comes out..in that vein we really liked ‘ I wanna hold your hand’
cool
Gotta agree that assuming anyone listening will be friendly is naive. If they aren’t friendly and can get here, we’re screwed based on technological disadvantage alone.
Personally I tend to think that anyone who knows we’re here is totally disinterested or simply unable to reach us.
lol
hat tip SNL
And the message comes back: “You wimps!”
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