Tech Shout!

Today, one of The Beatles songs “Across the Universe” will be beamed into deep space by NASA, literally across the universe! This event has been organized to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the day the Beatles first recorded the song.

NASA will transmit the 1969 hit song at 7:00 p.m. EST using the space agency’s Deep Space Network also known as DSN. However, this is not the first time the Beatles music has been used by NASA. In 2005, McCartney performed “Good Day Sunshine” during a concert that was transmitted to the International Space Agency.

The song will be transmitted in the direction of the North Star, which happens to be 431 light years away from Earth. It will travel the distance between the Earth and the North Star Polaris at a speed of 1,86,000 miles per second.

In fact, today, February 4, has been declared “Across the Universe Day” by fans of the Beatles all over the world. As part of the celestial celebrations, the public over the world have been invited to participate in the event by simultaneously playing the song at the same time that it is transmitted by NASA.

The song was written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The idea to transmit the song across the universe came from Martin Lewis, a Los Angeles-based Beatles historian. He then got permission from McCartney, Yoko Ono and the two companies that own the rights to The Beatles music.

“Amazing! Well done, NASA. Send my love to the aliens,” Beatle Paul McCartney was quoted as saying.

Lennon said he wrote the first line one night in 1967 in response to his wife “going on and on about something. I kept hearing these words over and over, went downstairs and it turned into some sort of cosmic song.”

Yoko Ono, wife of the late John Lennon called this the “beginning of a new age.”