Does the truth about aliens exist? One town wants to find out.
A Kentucky community has devised an unusual approach to promoting tourism: the world's first interstellar tourism campaign.
The Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau uses infrared lasers to send messages into space, inviting extraterrestrial travelers to visit the city.
“Hello aliens, if you're out there! This is your guide to experiencing the horse capital of the galaxy. We think it's well worth the 235 trillion mile journey.” said in a statement.
The idea for the campaign comes as recent UFO revelations and advances in deep space imagery have spurred the belief that we are not alone in the universe, the tourism board said in a statement announcing the move this month. I continued.
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The Lexington community is rallying behind a new “Out of this World” campaign. (Credit: VisitLEX)
“To date, this campaign has generated 2 billion impressions and thousands of visits to Extraterrestrial's Guide to Lexington. Web traffic to VisitLEX is up nearly 50% year over year.” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
So far, none of those impressions are from outside Earth.
The agency added that it worked with scientists and academics to send a message to a potentially habitable planet in the TRAPPIST-1 solar system 40 light years away. It may sound far away, but in terms of the galaxy, it's very close. The Milky Way galaxy has a diameter of over 100,000 light years. According to NASA.
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The agency says it will take 40 years to reach the intended goal and it could be another 40 years before there is any response. (Credit: VisitLEX)
The alien invitation effort was led by Lexington native Robert Rodder, an expert in computer engineering, astrobiology, and exploration of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).
“We brought together experts in engineering, linguistics, digital media, philosophy, and science fiction to design, discuss, and communicate this message,” he said in a statement.
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VisitLEX and a team of Lexington scientists and scholars used infrared lasers to send encrypted invitations to potential extraterrestrial travelers in the TRAPPIST-1 solar system 40 light-years away . (Credit: VisitLEX)
This message was sent with FAA approval and contains an encoded bitmap image.
“Bitmap images are the key to everything,” explains linguistics expert Dr. Andrew Bird. “We included images representing the elements of life, the iconic Lexington rolling hills, water, bourbon, and even the molecular structure of dopamine, because Lexington is fun.”
However, experts said it may take some time before answers are available. The agency says it will take 40 years to reach the intended goal and it could be another 40 years before there is any response.
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The Lexington community gathers for the launch of the world's first interstellar tourism campaign. (Credit: VisitLEX)
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
