• Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    How the actual fuck is a signal being sent 24 billion kilometres? That’s nuts

    • Purplexingg@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I just don’t get how it doesn’t get destroyed by random space shit. I get space is infinitely empty but it’s also infinitely full too, right…

      • ace_garp@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Infinitely empty AFAIK.

        Interstellar space is similar to atoms and the electron cloud, some tiny amount of matter and a whole heap of SFA.

        (Someone get at me with the actual numbers, but I’m leaning toward space being more sparse by percentage than an atom.)

        The main solar system objects were accounted for and closely avoided, now it’s a very roomy area to float through alone.

        • Purplexingg@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          But aren’t there like a bunch of little rocks from like asteroids and stuff? That’s what I never got even for launches from earth, why isn’t everything up there just getting peppered nonstop from debris. I guess space is really just that empty

          • Confused_Emus@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Debris like that will tend to concentrate around a gravitational focus. There’s a lot more of the space rocks and stuff you’re worried about within the inner solar system than towards the edges where there’s little gravity to keep those objects from falling further into the solar system. That’s why JWST had micro meteor impact damage so early after its launch.

    • evidences@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Get a big enough dish and you can do wild shit. Arecibo observatory was able to use radar to map the surface of Venus to like 1km resolution.

    • NeptuneOrbit@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Apparently it’s on a 12 foot antenna. That’s crazy. I thought for sure they’d be communicating on a much larger dish.

      I’d wager the data rate is pretty low, to increase the fidelity.