Lexington, Kentucky’s VisitLEX tourism bureau has sent an “official invitation” to the neighboring TRAPPIST-1 star system for aliens to visit their city.
Gizmodo writes about it.
In fact, this is a marketing trick, but the message is quite real. VisitLEX worked with engineers, linguists, and the US Federal Aviation Administration to implement the project.
The target star is 40 light years from Earth. This means that any aliens who want to visit the self-proclaimed World Horse Capital will receive an invitation in 2063.
Containing an invitation to aliens in Lexington.
The message contains a raster image of prime numbers, elements associated with life, images of water, ethanol, dopamine, horse and human figures, and a landscape. It also includes several photos of Lexington and an audio recording by local blues musician T.D. Young.
VisitLEX advertises to potential visitors “perfect for landing spaceships” hills, horses and bourbon.
It is not known whether any life exists in the star system, let alone intelligent life. Last year, data from the Webb Space Telescope showed that the exoplanets TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c have no atmosphere. This practically confirmed the lack of potential for life.
However, there are five more exoplanets in the TRAPPIST system that could theoretically contain civilizations that could accept VisitLEX’s invitation.
