With the help of laser, scientists invite aliens for the first time to visit Earth as tourists

A group of American scientists and linguists from the city of Lexington in the state of Kentucky have recorded and sent the first-of-its-kind advertisement to inhabitants of other worlds, urging them to visit our planet and specifically Lexington as tourists. This information is reported by the Space.com portal.

The message encodes an image of the hilly landscape of Kentucky, human and horse figures, as well as diagrams of water molecules, ethyl alcohol, and the happiness hormone dopamine. The reference to dopamine is related to Kentucky's reputation for bourbon production.

The signal was sent using an infrared laser to the TRAPPIST-1 star system, located 40 light-years or 378 trillion kilometers away from Earth.

Experts selected TRAPPIST-1 because it contains a large number of potentially habitable planets. The advertisement will reach its destination by the year 2063.

"We are targeting the TRAPPIST-1 system because we can potentially receive a response within one human lifespan, provided that someone out there receives and deciphers our message," noted astrobiologist and SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) specialist Robert Lodder.

The project to advertise Earth to extraterrestrials was prepared by the tourism promotion team VisitLEX under the city administration of Lexington and the advertising agency Cornett.