Kicker: Extraterrestrial travel ad

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: A team of scientists in the United States recently beamed a message to a distant solar system. Sound from the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau.

AUDIO: Lexington, KY, just beamed the first interstellar travel ad into outer space.

That’s right, the town known for horses, bourbon, and Kentucky basketball wants aliens to visit.

AUDIO: The message contains a bitmap key with prime numbers, plus horses and Lexington's iconic bluegrass landscape.

City leaders got permission from the federal government to use an infrared laser to send the message to a solar system 40 light years away.

That means it’ll take 80 years to find out if life somewhere out there sees the message, understands it, and wants to book a trip.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Someone posted online: Aliens are already here - google Walmartians!

BROWN: It’s The World and Everything in It.

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