With renewed interest in space exploration, several projects seek to help us visualize some basic aspects, starting with the fact that everything is very far away. The fastest thing we have is radio transmissions, and even so, we haven't traveled more than 110 light-years. Lightyear.fm is a portal that takes us on a superluminal journey and lets us hear what an alien civilization would record with its radio telescopes…
Several of the most recognized minds in the world of science seem to be having some doubts about sending radio transmissions into space. Some of those transmissions were voluntary (like the famous Arecibo message), but the rest have "escaped", so to speak. There is still some uncertainty regarding which was the first transmission of radio sent into space, although in Carl Sagan's novel Contact, the opening speech of Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Olympics is mentioned as the first television transmission with enough power to cross the ionosphere. Either way, we are making quite a lot of noise, and if there are little green men on Proxima Centauri, Ross 154, or Barnard's Star, they are probably wondering what all the fuss is about.
What Do You Hear Light-Years from Earth?
A good question is what those alien radio telescopes might pick up, and the Lightyear.fm portal gives us an idea. It is nothing less than an adventure through time and space: As we move away from Earth, the radio "dial" begins to travel into the past. Unfortunately, what sounds within the Solar System hardly deserves our attention, and this extends for several light-years.
The simple idea that at 15 light-years they are listening to Katy Perry terrifies me, but things get much better once we leave 30 light-years behind. Why? Because the '80s begin, and good taste is definitely a better representative. What is the last/first thing you can hear? Examples like "I've Got Rings On My Fingers", "Shine On, Harvest Moon", and "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now", very popular in the early 20th century.
Lightyear.fm is developed in HTML5, but we already know how this goes. The site's performance on Firefox is not the best, and although Chrome is the recommended browser, in some stretches it will inevitably drag along the way. Lightyear.fm has a lot of room for optimization, and we hope they do it. On the other hand... I'm worried about the idea that Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Lorde, Adele, and Pitbull become space ambassadors...
