If there’s something weird in space, does anyone know? Paul Quast has published the first space catalogue of every message and artifact humans have beamed up.
It’s hard to tell what aliens (and future humans) will make of the haul published in the International Journal of Astrobiology.
This includes:
- A version of “Across the Universe,” plus a message from Paul McCartney—“Send my love to the aliens”
- An invitation, in Klingon, to attend a performance (on Earth) of a Klingon opera
- the 2008 edition of the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still
- A copy of War of the Worlds (to Mars)
- Models of Lego figures (to orbit Jupiter)
- An advertisement for Doritos
- DNA from Stephen Colbert, encoded on a microchip
You’ll even find contraband. The sculptor Forrest Myers claims that he snuck a tiny ceramic tile including miniature artworks by Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol onto Apollo 12.
Earth, you made it weird.
Check out more about Earth’s oddest catalogue at Atlas Obscura.
