By Tim Binnall
The city of Lexington, Kentucky has launched a clever 'interstellar tourism campaign' beckoning aliens to visit the self-described "horse capital of the galaxy." The quirky concept comes courtesy of the economic development group VisitLEX which noted in a press release that "recent UFO revelations and advances in deep space imaging have fueled the belief that we are not alone in the universe." With that in mind, they created what is said to be the first-ever ad campaign aimed at our proverbial space brothers. "We believe Lexington is the best place on Earth," VisitLEX President Mary Quinn Ramer mused, arguing that "it's the ideal location for extraterrestrial travelers to begin exploring our world."
In order to reach those prospective interstellar tourists, they enlisted Lexington native and SETI scientist Dr. Robert Lodder and a "team of experts" who crafted a call to aliens that they beamed into space last month by way of a laser. "We brought together experts in engineering, linguistics, digital media, philosophy, and science fiction to design, debate, and transmit this message," he marveled at the remarkable effort. Contained within the missive are photos of the picturesque city, "an audio recording from legendary blues musician Tee Dee Young," and a bitmap image similar to the famed Arecibo message of 1974.
Linguistics expert Dr. Andrew Byrd, who worked on the project, explained that "the bitmap image is the key to it all" as it contains "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!" Approved by the FAA, the laser message was specifically sent to the star system TRAPPIST-1, which is approximately 39 light years from Earth and features several potentially habitable planets. The 'interstellar ad' will reach its intended audience around 2063 and, if there are intelligent beings there that are persuaded to visit Lexington, they could arrive at the city sometime around the turn of the next century at the very earliest.