“When deep space exploration ramps up, it will be corporations that name everything. The IBM Stellar Sphere. The Microsoft Galaxy. Planet Starbucks.” — Fight Club
Apparently, Chuck Palahniuk was right*:
It could be the longest commercial break in history. Over a six-hour period this morning, high-powered radars in the Arctic Circle broadcast an advertisement into space for the first time.The advertisement, for Doritos tortilla chips, was being directed towards a solar system in the Ursa Major constellation, just 42 light years from Earth. The solar system contains a habitable zone, and could host an Earth-like planet and extraterrestrial life.
Via Warren Ellis, who’s none too pleased with the idea.
* Lucy Ellmann must be hating that.
I can’t help remembering the Isaac Asimov story where aliens bought Jupiter so they could put a billboard on it.
Sigh.