US tourist board send brochure to aliens 40 lightyears away: 'Just don't eat us'

Holiday destinations are always looking for interesting ways to best market themselves to new visitors, but the US state of Colorado is taking things to entirely new levels to attract prospective tourists.

In fact, the state is blasting a visitor brochure into space to try and contact aliens in outer space.

The state is targeting the star TRAPPIST-1, which is found 40 light years away from our planet, sending infrared signals containing binary code.

When deciphered the code shows a pixelated image with the words “Visit Lexington, Kentucky.”

So, if aliens do indeed exist and they can understand English, their first stop off after their journey to Earth could well be the southeastern US state.

The scheme was put together by the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau, who beamed the (very) speculative ad up back in October, after being inspired by the conversation around last year’s congressional hearings on the subject of UFOs.

Robert Lodder is a professor of chemistry at the University of Kentucky, who was a consultant on the project.

He said [via Washington Post]: “A lot of people think Kentucky is a flyover state, and it’s nice to give them the impression that maybe we’re not… and that Earth is not a flyover planet.”

Lodder went on to say: “People would say, ‘Why don’t you advertise for all of Earth?’ Well, you know, that makes a longer message and it’s harder. So if somebody wants me to send an ad for Lexington? Sure. I’ll send that.”

While it all might sounds like a bit of fun in outer space, it might not be quite as far fetched as it sounds.

After all, Earth received the first ever ‘alien message’ last year after a simulation of what extraterrestrial contact could look like was sent out by scientists.

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