NASA Broadcasts the Beatles' "Across the Universe" to Polaris -The North Star
"Send my love to the aliens," Paul McCartney told NASA through a Beatles historian.
Today, NASA will broadcast the Beatles' song "Across the Universe" written by McCartney and John Lennon across the galaxy to Polaris, the North Star, 431 light years or 2.5 quadrillion miles away. This is being done to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the song, the 45th anniversary of the Deep Space Network, and the 50th anniversary of NASA.
The idea was hatched by Beatles' historian Martin Lewis, who
encourages all Beatles fans to play the track as it is being beamed to
the distant star. Additionally, this date will be known as "Across the
Universe Day". The event marks the first time a radio song has been
beamed into deep space, and was approved by Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono.
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.
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.
Posted by Casey Kazan.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/healthscience/stories/020208dnscibeatles.222b4d3.html
That was cool! Greetings to NASA
on their 50th Anniversary..
Posted by: ganeshbrhills | February 05, 2008 at 06:34 PM
Great stuff. Very clever idea. Maybe aliens will make it a hit. =]
Posted by: Howie | February 06, 2008 at 06:10 PM