Beatles to travel 'Across the Universe'
The Beatles' classic 'Across the Universe' is to become the first ever song to be beamed directly into space next week, NASA has confirmed.
Paul McCartney said it was an "amazing" achievement and John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono called it the "beginning of a new age".
The transmission of the song over the space agency's Deep Space Network on Monday 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.
In a message to the space agency, McCartney said: "Amazing! Well done, NASA! Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul."
Yoko Ono added: "I see that 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.
The Deep Space Network is an international network of antennas that supports missions to explore the universe.
