Cumbrian Sky

... or "Let It Beam" as The Sun put it so well...!

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Deep Space Network - the network of radio telescopes that beams commands to, and receives pictures from, the various spaceprobes out there exploring the solar system - NASA is going to transmit the Beatles song "Across The Universe" towards the star Polaris tomorrow, Monday, at 2pm GMT. The song was recorded by the "Fab Four" forty years ago tomorrow, so it's a kind of double anniversary celebration.

But any inhabitants of planets orbiting Polaris (and actually, we don't think there are any, but that's beside the point) will have a long wait to play the song on their alien iPods; as it is 431 light years away, and light travels at 186,000 miles per second, the song won't reach the famous Pole Star until the year 2439...

Some critics have been a bit sniffy about this, saying that it's a waste of time and valuable resources. Oh for pity's sake, lighten up! Sometimes it's just fun to do fun things, with no scientific value or reason. The Beatles are famous, the Pole Star is famous, put the two together and it means people who wouldn't normally talk about space will talk about it, which can only be a good thing!

Even though "Across The Universe" - one of the Beatles most psychedelic songs - was mostly written by John Lennon, Sir Paul McCartney was delighted when he heard the news. “Amazing! Well done, Nasa! Send my love to the aliens.”

Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, said: “I see this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets.”, thus confirming her reputation as one of the foremost fruit loops of our time.

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