Vienna's Musical Message to Aliens: One, Two, Three. One, Two, Three.
What would aliens make of the waltz?
That was the big question on Saturday evening while the Vienna Symphony Orchestra performed Johann Strauss's world-renowned 'Blue Danube' waltz, as a 35-meter antenna in Cebreros, Spain, simultaneously transmitted a recording of it into space.
The Vienna Tourist Board, which organized the event at the Museum of Applied Arts in collaboration with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the European Space Agency, said beaming the music into the cosmos was an effort to correct the record, as it were.
In 1977, when the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft left the Earth with two copies of the Golden Record, which contains images, sounds and music from Earth, Strauss's 'Blue Danube' waltz did not make the cut. This was a mistake, according to Vienna's tourism board, which is celebrating Strauss's 200th birthday this year.
After all, Strauss was the 19th-century equivalent of a pop star. According to Tim Dokter, the director of artistic administration for the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, back then, each composition for the waltz was like a hot new single. 'People would wait for it, like, 'Oh, a new waltz dropped today,'' Dokter said. 'It was something new to dance to, like a new techno song.'
With Voyager 1 already more than 15 billion miles from Earth, the farthest of any object humans have launched into the universe, there's no way to make changes to the Golden Record. Instead, the 'Blue Danube' waltz — traveling as an electromagnetic wave at the speed of light — will overtake the spacecraft and continue to soar into deep space.
Will aliens be able to access the recording?
'If aliens have a big antenna, receive the waves, convert them into music, then they could hear it,' said Josef Aschbacher, the director general of the European Space Agency.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
How Much Does It Cost to Build a Space Station? Would You Believe Less Than $4 Billion?
Voyager Technologies's confidential IPO prospectus has just been made public. Investors still don't know how much the IPO will cost, but we do now know Voyager's annual revenue -- and losses. Voyager will probably continue losing money for at least another four to five years. These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires › It took 13 years, 15 nations, and roughly $100 billion to build the International Space Station (ISS). But one company thinks it can build a replacement for as little as $3 billion -- or less. That company's name is Voyager Technologies ... and it's about to list an initial public offering (IPO). I first wrote about the impending Voyager Technologies IPO back in February, but to be honest, there wasn't a whole lot to say about it then. Voyager made its first filing for initial public offering under a guarantee of confidentiality, you see. As a result, most of what we knew about Voyager's IPO at the time came directly from Voyager itself, via information published on its own website. That just changed. Last week, Voyager finally filed its IPO prospectus (termed an S-1) publicly. And while a lot of important data blocks in the document remain blank and yet to be filled in, Voyager did add a lot of background information on its business. Voyager is best known today as one of four teams competing for NASA contracts to kick-start Voyager's efforts to create a replacement -- privately owned -- space station. But Voyager actually describes itself as an "innovation-driven defense technology and space solutions company," suggesting much more widely ranging interests, above and beyond just building a space station replacement. For this reason, structurally, the company has organized itself in three business divisions: Defense & National Security, Space Solutions, and Starlab Space Stations. The Starlab division will participate in an international joint venture to operate the proposed Starlab space station. "Equity" partners in this venture include Palantir Technologies, Airbus, Japan's Mitsubishi, and Canada's MDA Space. Voyager owns 67% of the JV, Airbus 30.5%, while Palantir, Mitsubishi, and MDA own less than 1% each. Hilton and Northrop Grumman are non-equity "strategic" partners performing various roles in the venture, and SpaceX is under contract to launch the space station aboard its Starship launch vehicle in 2029. Voyager notes that its space station concept features a "proven metallic habitat design" that can "be deployed and achieve initial operational capability in a single launch on SpaceX's Starship." This single module, says Voyager, will replace "approximately 45% of the pressurized volume of the U.S. Segment (non-Russian) of the ISS." Two launches should therefore essentially replace the entire working volume of the U.S. portion of the space station. And here's the best part: Whereas ISS cost $100 billion to build, Voyager said it expects to build and launch its Starlab for "approximately $2.8 billion to $3.3 billion." That's a lot cheaper than the original recipe ISS cost. It's also a lot less cash than Voyager has on hand (just $175.5 million at last report), which explains why Voyager must IPO to raise the cash it needs to build Starlab. The bigger question for investors is: Should you help them out with that, by handing over your cash to Voyager at the IPO? And that's a question of valuation. Voyager generated $136.1 million in revenue in 2023, then grew its revenue 6% to $144.2 million in 2024. Much of this money has come from NASA, the company's largest customer, accounting for 25.6% of 2024 revenue. NASA has awarded the company $217.5 million toward developing an ISS replacement. Of this, $147.2 million has already been paid out between 2022 and 2023. Including NASA, the company says it has won "approximately $800 million" in contracts and Space Act Agreements from the U.S. government, which gives you an idea of future revenue prospects. (Out of these contracts, $93.1 million is considered backlog -- work for which Voyager has "a written contract or purchase order" either in-hand or awaiting execution). As for costs, well, those are large, significantly larger than revenue at present, resulting in a $65.6 million loss in 2024. Net losses per (still privately traded) share are about $9.88, up 88% year over year. And investors should expect losses to grow as the company spends to get Starlab completed and ready for launch. Revenue probably won't begin offsetting rising costs until 2029, when the space station launches and begins operations. Long story short, the prospectus just filed by Voyager paints the picture of a speculative investment, one with substantial revenue, but perhaps not enough to justify its projected $2 billion to $3 billion valuation at IPO. Even at the low end of this valuation, $147 million in trailing-12-month sales implies a 13.6 price-to-sales ratio on the stock. As for P/E, well, Voyager has no earnings on which to hang a price-to-earnings valuation, and probably won't have any earnings for another four to five years. Does all this mean you shouldn't invest in the Voyager IPO? Not necessarily. But it does mean you should make any "investment" by being fully conscious that what you're really doing is speculating on the venture not going bust. And you should probably examine your risk tolerance before doing that. Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you'll want to hear this. On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a 'Double Down' stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you're worried you've already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it's too late. And the numbers speak for themselves: Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you'd have $350,426!* Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you'd have $38,129!* Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you'd have $651,049!* Right now, we're issuing 'Double Down' alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join , and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.*Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. How Much Does It Cost to Build a Space Station? Would You Believe Less Than $4 Billion? was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Forbes
6 hours ago
- Forbes
Asteroid Larger Than Golden Gate Bridge Approaches Earth In Rare Event
An asteroid that may be as big as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco will fly safely by Earth on Thursday, June 5, 2025. Bigger than 97% of asteroids, for such a large object to come close to Earth is a relatively rare event, but asteroid 424482 (2008 DG5) won't pose any threat. Asteroid 424482 (2008 DG5) is about 1,017-2,264 feet (310-690 meters) in size, which puts it in the top 3% of asteroids, according to In Manhattan, that's the distance from Grand Central Station to the One World Trade Center. It will come within 2.17 million miles (3.49 million kilometers) of Earth, about nine times farther than the moon. The moon is, on average, 238,855 miles/384,400 kilometers from Earth. That may not sound close — and it certainly poses no danger to Earth — but the European Space Agency classes such a close pass of such a large asteroid as "infrequent." Any object that comes within 4.6 million miles of Earth and is larger than 492 feet is capable of causing significant regional damage in the event of impact. 2008 DG5 is therefore referred to as a 'potentially hazardous object' by NASA. 2008 DG5 is an Apollo asteroid, which means its orbital pass crosses Earth's. It orbits the sun every 514 Earth days and was discovered in 2008 by the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, part of NASA's Near Earth Object Observation Program. 2008 DG5's next close approach will be in 2032. It poses no danger to Earth, but if an asteroid the size of 2008 DG5 did strike Earth, it could cause catastrophic regional damage, possibly causing shockwaves and tsunamis. For context, the 'Tunguska Event' in 1908, which saw a fireball, massive forest fires and 80 million trees knocked over, according to NASA, was caused by an asteroid just 130 feet (40 meters) in diameter in size exploding six miles above Siberia. At the other end of the scale, the Chicxulub asteroid that's thought to have caused the dinosaur's extinction was six to 10 miles (10 to 15 kilometers) wide. 2024 YR4, an asteroid about 130 to 300 feet (40 to 90 meters) in diameter — as wide as the Statue of Liberty is tall — was a significant news story earlier this year when astronomers calculated it would strike Earth on Dec. 22, 2032. In the weeks after its discovery on Dec. 27, 2024, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System in Chile, 2024 YR4 was thought to be destined to strike Earth along a 'risk corridor' calculated as stretching from the eastern Pacific Ocean through northern South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Arabian Sea and South Asia. At one point, NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies had the asteroid's impact probability at 3.1% — the highest ever recorded for an object of that size — but on Feb. 24, it reduced the likelihood of an impact event almost to zero.
Condé Nast Traveler
7 hours ago
- Condé Nast Traveler
Where Was Nine Perfect Strangers Filmed?
The Alpine setting of the second season of Nine Perfect Strangers is a far cry from the California wellness resort portrayed in season one. This new season, currently airing weekly on Hulu, continues the unorthodox efforts of Masha Dmitrichenko (Nicole Kidman), who hopes to heal her unwitting guests using psychedelics. This time, she moves on from Tranquillum to a mountainside resort called Zauberwald. 'Masha is a person who has to evolve,' explains executive producer Bruna Papandrea. 'The move was a natural progression for her as a character, but also to be in this incredible environment and have her guests come there is a very natural story element that we always anticipated doing for a second season. What we felt was that a winter setting was both slightly ominous, but also incredibly beautiful and also luxurious.' To film season two, the cast temporarily relocated to Munich, where they lived for six months. Shooting took place around Austria and Germany, as well as on a soundstage. Locations included Salzburg, Hallstatt, Alpendorf, Leopoldskron Palace, and Gradonna Ski Resort. 'We really did get to do a lot of very cool bopping around to some crazy locations that I don't think we would have ever found ourselves in otherwise,' notes Annie Murphy, who plays Imogen, one of Zauberwald's guests. To film season two of Nine Perfect Strangers, the cast temporarily relocated to Munich (pictured), where they lived for six months. Getty Images On set, the actors became especially close, and Christine Baranski, who plays the wealthy Victoria, encouraged their bonding. In the series, Murphy plays Victoria's estranged daughter, Murray Bartlett plays former children's TV host Brian, Henry Golding plays rich kid Peter, and musician King Princess plays a struggling pianist who travels with her girlfriend Wolfie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers). Below, Papandrea, Murphy, and King Princess speak to Condé Nast Traveler about their experiences filming Nine Perfect Strangers. What vibe did you want Zauberwald to have? Bruna Papandrea: What we all really wanted was the sense of history, because Masha has history with this place and there is that incredible sense of the old that you get throughout Europe. But [it has] been redone to be very luxurious and very opulent. Soho House does it brilliantly all over Europe. That was one of our references for how you take something incredibly old and historical and update it and make it really beautiful and new. We wanted it to feel very warm and very beautiful, and to have elements of any luxury wellness retreat. To achieve a luxurious and opulent feel for the locations of Nine Perfect Strangers, the team turned to Soho House locations in Europe for inspiration, according to the show's executive producer Bruna Papandrea. Udo Kramer Was the exterior of Zauberwald an actual resort? King Princess: The exterior was Franz Ferdinand's hunting castle, Schloss Blühnbach. Annie Murphy: The reason we shot in Germany in the first place is because they wanted such a stark difference between season one and season two, and they wanted season two to be this beautiful snow globe-y winter wonderland. Then cut to it being the hottest winter on record for decades and decades. These poor ski towns that make their entire annual income from tourism, everything ground to a halt. In so many shots of us in our parkas and our hats and our mitts we're just pretending to have chattering teeth and we're sweating underneath there. Behind the scenes, the crew was there was shoveling like snow that had been trucked in and was slowly melting. But one day at Blühnbach there was the most glorious snowstorm—it's a scene where we're all snowshoeing. But then it snowed so much that we got snowed in and had to wait to be shoveled out.
