"Across The Universe" beamed in to space

[FPSHOT]

I don't think this is posted yet;

The Beatles Across The Universe To Beam Across The Universe

by Paul Cashmere - February 1 2008

The Beatles 'Let It Be' classic 'Across The Universe' will be beamed 2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles into space.

The US space agency NASA will shoot The Beatles' song to Polaris (The North Star) on February 4th. The journey is expected to take 431 years, arriving in the year 2439AD.

Paul McCartney, who is listed as co-composer of the song with John Lennon (although John wrote the song) said in a statement "Amazing! Well done NASA! Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul".

John's wife Yoko Ono is equally excited. "I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe," she said.

Martin Lewis from Springtime has organized the project and has declared February 4th Across The Universe Day.

A website for the event has been set up at www.acrosstheuniverseday.com

Here are some facts about the project.

• The song is targeted at Polaris - "The North Star" that was Man's first navigational guide. Polaris is situated 431 Light Years into space. Each "Light Year" is a distance of 5,878,625,373,183 miles

• This cosmic message-in-a-bottle from Planet Earth will travel at the Speed Of Light – 186,000 miles per second!

• The song will take 431 years to reach Polaris – arriving in the year 2,439 AD.

• The song will travel 2.5 quadrillion miles away. (A quadrillion is one thousand million million! So 2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away!)

• According to scientists, as the beam containing the song propagates across the universe, the signal could theoretically be picked up by anyone or anything with the right equipment. Especially if they are Beatles fans…

• If the song hits Polaris and bounces back to Earth – it would reach us in the year 2870 AD! (345 years after Zager & Evans "In The Year 2525" is reissued!)

• As the radius of our galaxy is only 50,000 light years, after hitting Polaris, the song could travel on beyond our galaxy towards the "background stars"

• Monday February 4th is the exact 40th anniversary of the first recording of that song in 1968 by The Beatles. This took place at the EMI Studios in Abbey Road, London.

• The song – officially credited to Lennon-McCartney but written primarily by John Lennon – was one of Lennon's favorite songs. The Beatles have released four separate versions of it since it was recorded. The version that is being beamed into space is the very first released version.

• The song "Across The Universe" has been performed by many artists including Bono, David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Cyndi Lauper, Norah Jones, Brian Wilson (Beach Boys), Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day), Robyn Hitchcock, Rufus Wainwright, Sean Lennon, Moby, Tim McGraw, Scott Weiland, Alicia Keys, Alison Krauss, Velvet Revolver, Fiona Apple, 10cc.

• "Across The Universe" was recently utilized as the title song of a movie musical that incorporated 33 Beatles songs and featured U2 singer Bono. The film was released theatrically in September 2007 and is being released on DVD in February 2008.

• The beaming of the song into space is being masterminded at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory - the center that built and successfully launched the first US satellite "Explorer 1" exactly 50 years ago. JPL also manages the Deep Space Network. The countdown to the historic transmission will commence at JPL in Pasadena, California - which will transmit the song to NASA's Deep Space Communications Complex in Madrid, Spain that will then launch the song into space via a 70-meter diameter DSS-63 antenna. The antenna is usually used to communicate with deep space spacecraft, such as Voyager, Cassini, MER, and others.

http://undercover.com.au/News-Story.aspx?id=3998

Used by permission from Paul Cashmere at Undercover News

[Serena]

interesting, but i'm not sure i see the point for this. perhaps it is just a guinea pig for another experiment.

[raul]

Thanks for this.

[lennonluvr9]

Cool. I dont really understand why either though. Are they testing equipment or something? I'm not sure why they'd beam that out to a place where it may not be heard. (and even if heard, most likely not understood) But yeah, it is kind of a neat idea in its own way

[Lucy]

Another article on this....

'Send my love to aliens,' says McCartney as Beatles tune is first to be beamed into space
Last updated at 15:58pm on 1st February 2008

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=511736&in_page_id=1811

The Beatles' song Across the Universe will be the first ever to be beamed directly into space next week, Nasa revealed today.

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney said it was an "amazing" achievement and John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono called it the "beginning of a new age".

The transmission of the song over the space agency's Deep Space Network on Monday will mark the 40th anniversary of the day the band recorded the song.

Across The Universe: The Fab Four's song will become first tune to be beamed into space

A year ealier, in 1967, the Beatles recorded another first - the maiden live transatlantic broadcast with their song All You Need Is Love.

The song will be aimed at the North Star, Polaris, 431 light years away from Earth, and it will travel across the universe at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, Nasa said.

Paul McCartney: 'Send my love to the aliens'
In a message to the space agency, Sir Paul said: "Amazing! Well done, Nasa! Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul."
Miss Ono added: "I see that this as the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe."

Anything listening out there would hear the lyrics which include the chorus line: "Nothing's gonna change my world."

Fans have been invited to participate in the event by playing the song around the world at midnight GMT on Monday night - the same time it will be transmitted by Nasa.

The event will also mark 50 years of Nasa, 45 years of the Deep Space Network and 50 years since the founding of Explorer 1, the first US satellite.

Space walk: NASA astronauts will listen to the Beatles while looking down at the Earth

The Beatles tune "All You Need Is Love" became the first trans-Atlantic television transmission in 1967.

A Nasa spokesman said many of the senior scientists and engineers involved in the project were among The Beatles' biggest fans.

Dr Barry Geldzahler, the network's programme executive at Nasa Headquarters in Washington, said: "I've been a Beatles fan for 45 years - as long as the Deep Space Network has been around.

"What a joy, especially considering that Across the Universe is my personal favourite Beatles song."

The Deep Space Network is an international network of antennas that supports missions to explore the universe.

[Get Back]

Not sure why either but hey, it's cool anyway. We might eventually get some new Beatle fans and members to BeatleLinks from where no man has gone before...................... Stay tuned folks.

[beatlebangs1964]

And this off the AOL news page:

WASHINGTON(AP) 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.

The idea came from Martin Lewis, a Los Angeles-based Beatles historian, who then got permission from McCartney, Yoko Ono and the two companies that own the rights to Beatles' music. One of those companies, Apple, was happy to approve the idea because is "always looking for new markets," Lewis said.