NASA Launching Music Into Space

On Monday, NASA will broadcast the Beatles song “Across the Universe” across the galaxy to the North Star, Polaris. This would be the first time that a song has ever been beamed by the space agency into deep outer space. It would celebrate the 40th anniversary of the song, the 45^th anniversary of NASA’s Deep Space Network, and the 50^th anniversary of NASA.

The song would be traveling at the speed of light and would take 431 years to reach Polaris. Polaris is 2.5 quadrillion miles away from Earth. The song would be transmitted digitally at 7 p.m. EST on Monday from a giant antenna in Madrid, Spain. For a person to hear the song on Polaris, they would need an antenna and a receiver for it to be converted back to music.

The original idea came from a man named Martin Lewis, a Los Angeles Beatles historian. He asked for permission from McCartney, Yoko Ono, and two companies that own the rights to the Beatles’ music. The Apple Company was happy to approve the idea.

NASA Pictures Show Mercury is Shrinking

Pictures from the unseen side of Mercury show wrinkles from the shrinking planet and residue from volcanic eruptions. There is also a large landmark that is shaped like a spider.

NASA’s Messenger probe brought back 1,213 pictures and images that show that there are ancient volcanoes on Mercury and the planet is shrinking as it gets older, causing ridges. It is assumed that as the core of Mercury cools down, it contracts and the entire planet shrinks. As the planet shrinks, crust is pushed over one another and forms ridges. Other images showed a spider like shape on the surface. It is made up of a crater with dozens of ridge lines coming from it.

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and before it was thought that the planet was dull like our moon but recent photos show that the planet is more colorful and has areas of baby blues and reds. Mercury also has at least one crater that is filled with its own version of lava.