Silly astronomy

It was absurd enough when NASA used its Deep Space Network back in February to transmit a John Lennon tune to the North Star, 431 light years away. Of course Yoko liked it. She would. Now the Brits are going to join the charade, raising an undisclosed amount of research money from Doritos corn chips to beam one of their ads to a possible solar system in the Big Dipper, just 42 light years from Earth. Cute, sure. But hardly serious, useful, or a boost to astronomy’s reputation.