NASA periodically transmits cultural content into space. From music to a recording of the human heartbeat on Voyager’s golden record, who we are as a planet spanning civilization periodically gets beamed to the stars.
And the variety of what is getting sent out just got a bit more hip to the beat.
For reasons I can’t explain, NASA pointed its Deep Space Network at the planet Venus and transmitted the Lyrics to Missy Elliott’s song “The Rain”. Venus, by the way, is Missy Elliott’s favorite planet.
Because of how radio beams spread out as they travel, some of this signal will have continued on toward the outer solar system and the stars beyond. In all likelihood the signal can’t be detected at stellar distances because it just wasn’t that strong, but it’s still fun to imagine being greeted by aliens who start with the opening line, “Beep, beep, who got the keys to the Jeep? Vroom”
As a lover of Jeep wranglers, I’d be ok with that… other lines from that song… well things could get a little weird on the D-low.