By Brian Williams | 8 years ago

35 years ago on August 18, 1977, Jeremy Ehman, a researcher working on a SETI project, detected an unusual signal coming from the constellation of Sagittarius. The signal so closely matched what would be expected of an Interstellar “hello” by aliens that he circled it and wrote the word “Wow!” on the margins of the printout. Even though the signal itself only lasted for 72 seconds and was never confirmed by another source, it has become famously known as the “Wow!” signal.

In an effort to promote their latest show, Chasing UFOs, Nat Geo has announced they are celebrating the signal’s anniversary by beaming your tweets to the same region of the sky the signal was originally detected at. Stephen Hawking (and anyone who has read one of Kanye West’s tweets) may not think such a promotion is a wise move, but that’s not stopping the promotion train from rolling. They have even enlisted some celebrities in their quest to humiliate the human race on a cosmic scale. Jorge Garcia of Lost, and Tahmoh Penikett of Battlestar Galactica have already recorded video messages to send along with your food pictures.

Here the cast of the new show explain the details…

To join this galactic spamfest, hashtag your tweets with #CHASINGUFOS at 8pm EST on June 29th and after midnight they will collect all of those messages to send on the 35th anniversary of the “Wow!” signal. For more info head over to the show’s website. If aliens do receive this message I don’t know what is worse, that our first contact will be with the randomness of an open ended Twitter invitation, or that it will be a reality show promotion that finances it. If Stephen Hawing is right, then we are all doomed.

Hurley seems to know where this is all going, and he has one request…