Across the Universe

At midnight GMT (7pm EST) on the night of Monday 4th February, The Beatles' song Across the Universe will be the first ever to be beamed directly into space, NASA said.

Join us by listening to the song at the same time:

Feb 4th 03.00pm Anchorage
Feb 4th 04.00pm Los Angeles
Feb 4th 05.00pm Guatemala
Feb 4th 06.00pm Chicago
Feb 4th 07.00pm New York
Feb 4th 07.00pm Montreal
Feb 4th 08.00pm Rio de Janeiro
Feb 4th 11.00pm Reykjavik
Feb 5th 12.00am Liverpool & London
Feb 5th 01.00am Europe
Feb 5th 02.00am Baghdad
Feb 5th 03.00am Moscow
Feb 5th 04.00am Karachi
Feb 5th 05.00am Dhaka
Feb 5th 06.00am Bangkok
Feb 5th 07.00am Shanghai
Feb 5th 08.00am Tokyo
Feb 5th 09.00am Sydney
Feb 5th 10.00am Vladivostok
Feb 5th 11.00am Suva
Feb 5th 12.00am Auckland
Feb 5th 01.00am Kiritimati

The transmission of the song over NASA's Deep Space Network will mark the 40th anniversary of the day the band recorded the song. The song will be aimed at the North Star, Polaris, 431 light years away from Earth, and it will travel across the universe at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, NASA said.

In a message to the space agency, Sir Paul McCartney said: "Amazing! Well done, NASA! Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul". Yoko Ono added: "I see this as the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe."

Fans have been invited to participate in the event by playing the song around the world at midnight GMT on Monday night - the same time it will be transmitted by NASA.

The event will also mark 50 years of NASA, 45 years of the Deep Space Network and 50 years since the founding of Explorer 1, the first US satellite. A NASA spokesman said many of the senior scientists and engineers involved in the project were among The Beatles' biggest fans. Dr Barry Geldzahler, the network's programme executive at Nasa Headquarters in Washington, said: "I've been a Beatles fan for 45 years - as long as the Deep Space Network has been around. What a joy, especially considering that Across the Universe is my personal favourite Beatles song."



http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/across_universe.html