The city of Lexington, located in Kentucky, is tired of the fact that its existence remains almost unnoticed by mankind. And to make itself known to the whole world, Lexington took a huge galactic step by sending an official invitation to space. It was a message to an alien civilization that either exists or perhaps does not exist in a nearby star system.
In fact, this action was not so much scientific as it was trying to attract the attention of tourists. To be more precise, it was an advertisement from VisitLEX, the Lexington travel agency. The initiators of this extraordinary event reported that last autumn they sent an infrared laser signal to the TRAPPIST-1 star system. This invitation is the result of collaboration with engineers, linguists and the Federal Aviation Administration. The TRAPPIST-1 star is located 40 light-years from Earth. Therefore, if there is an advanced civilization capable of listening to the sky, then it will receive a message in 2063.
The message, sent into space, contains a bitmap image of prime numbers, elements that are associated with living organisms and also illustrate water, ethanol and dopamine. There are patterns of horses and people, as well as landscapes of Lexington. In addition, the official invitation includes photos of the city and an audio recording of Tee Dee Young, a blues musician originally from Lexington.
VisitLEX also notes that the local hills are an ideal place for landing alien spaceships. Also, among the attributes of Lexington, horses and bourbon take their place of honor in the advertising arsenal of the tourist office. Moreover, the locals focus on the branded alcoholic drink. Thus, according to the idea of the travel agency, the outside world learns about the taste of local bourbon through aliens.
Is there life on TRAPPIST-1?
Unfortunately, it is not yet known whether life exists in the TRAPPIST-1 system. There is even less chance that it is intelligent. Since last year, it has been known that TRAPPIST-1b, one of the planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1, has no atmosphere at all. Since the atmosphere is necessary for life, this effectively eliminates the possibility of life on TRAPPIST-1b. Additional observations from the James Webb Space Telescope have shown that TRAPPIST-1c also has no atmosphere, or perhaps it is very sparse. However, there are still five exoplanets in the system, one of which, theoretically, can have an atmosphere and therefore support life.
VisitLEX confidently hopes that the aliens will accept their invitation. Whether anyone will respond to the cosmic invitation remains a mystery for now.
According to gizmodo.com
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