We’re all used to cities, states or countries advertising what a great place it is to visit, but in Lexington Kentucky, they have taken this to a whole new level – sending out a ‘come to Lexington’ message into space in the hope aliens might take in what the city has to offer.
In what is believed to be the first interstellar travel advert, scientists beamed a message towards the TRAPPIST-1 system, which is just 40 light years from Earth but is believed to contain potentially habitable planets in it.
The group behind the scheme, VisitLex, partnered with ad agency Cornett to come up with the advertising campaign that has a sci-fi – of course – theme. The campaign, which was specially coded, was delivered to the TRAPPIST-1 system via a modified infrared laser, which had prior approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration.
VisitLEX assembled a team of experts led by a Lexington native, Dr Robert Lodder, an expert in computer engineering, astrobiology, and SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence).
“It was quite the team effort,” said Dr Lodder. “We brought together experts in engineering, linguistics, digital media, philosophy and science fiction to design, debate and transmit this message.”
Contents of the message range from photos of Lexington to an audio recording from legendary blues musician Tee Dee Young, to a coded bitmap image containing clues to the origin and intent of the transmission.
“We believe Lexington is the best place on Earth,” said VisitLEX President Mary Quinn Ramer. “It’s the ideal location for extraterrestrial travellers to begin exploring our world.
“Lexington’s iconic bluegrass landscape boasts beautiful, wide open spaces, perfect for landing a spacecraft. Named one of the top 3 friendliest cities in America by Conde Nast, Lexington is also home to the best food, bourbon, music, and art planet Earth has to offer.”
Although VisitLEX is playing the long game here – the message will not reach its destination for 40 years and then, even if the message is received and aliens decide to come to Lexington for a holiday, it will take them another 40 years to get here – assuming they don’t have spacecraft that travel faster than the speed of light.
“The bitmap image is the key to it all,” said linguistics expert Dr Andrew Byrd. “We included imagery representing the elements of life, our iconic Lexington rolling hills, and the molecular structure for water, bourbon, and even dopamine… because Lexington is fun!”
