On the gravity telescope collecting data pixel by pixel at 14 x the distance of Pluto from the sun, it looks like it would take about 77 hours (+/1 several more) for that data to transmitted to us once it has been locally collected, stored, and magnified electrically/electronically. I thought it would be much more than that, but I suppose that time span is not overly burdensome for the people who can put the telescope out there in the first place, taking perhaps decades to achieve?
One image that occurred to me was that whatever civilization might exist on one of those planets might also be able to build and send a 10 km square cube our way and block out any light from reaching us when it got close enough. This of course seems somewhat like the Borg, totally fanciful, but what us fearful and insecure humans might well dread.
I expect space telescopes to continue to tell us more about the galaxy. But the next big jump imo will be rotating ionic liquids and massive radio arrays on the dark (far) side of the moon. With these wide and unimpaired facilities, I expect we will see a new layer of detail.
I doubt I'll see a gravity lense telescope in anyone Alives life, but I would like to see a solar/fission sail craft sent out as soon as possible, and the sail could then be used as a reflector at the solar lensing point to give greater focus.
As usual, a well-done article, but this one has a major flaw: implying we can get to far planets to find other civilizations. You were right to observe that, at 100 light years away, we would see 100-year-old images. But if we wanted to visit them, it would take at least another hundred years to get there at the speed of light. That would require going about 40,000 times faster than we've ever gone before, and then to stop near the planet. The trip would take centuries in cold space, and another century to send messages back. Humanity has a huge job ahead to keep from wiping ourselves out, and suggesting we might save ourselves by space travel is a cruel joke. There are many limits to growth, and we have already exceeded many, and old behavior won't work. The obvious solution is too obvious: Just shift our development standards from quantity, which has limits, to quality, derived from better information, which has no apparent limit.
Thanks for sharing! I didn’t know much about telescopes, but the history is fascinating.
If we had a gravitational lens, would it only be able to see a small portion of space? (ie whatever was on the other side of the line from the telescope to the sun)
If so, presumably the telescope would be orbiting the sun so we’d eventually be able to scan a ring of space that way. I wonder how many such telescopes, or what kind of fuel and engine tech we’d need to be able to get a complete picture of the cosmos around us…
Yes, another very fine article.
On the gravity telescope collecting data pixel by pixel at 14 x the distance of Pluto from the sun, it looks like it would take about 77 hours (+/1 several more) for that data to transmitted to us once it has been locally collected, stored, and magnified electrically/electronically. I thought it would be much more than that, but I suppose that time span is not overly burdensome for the people who can put the telescope out there in the first place, taking perhaps decades to achieve?
One image that occurred to me was that whatever civilization might exist on one of those planets might also be able to build and send a 10 km square cube our way and block out any light from reaching us when it got close enough. This of course seems somewhat like the Borg, totally fanciful, but what us fearful and insecure humans might well dread.
Let's get that gravity telescope built!
In the shorter term though, I'm pretty excited for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), that'sscheduled for completion in 2028.
Habitable World’s Observatory too.
I expect space telescopes to continue to tell us more about the galaxy. But the next big jump imo will be rotating ionic liquids and massive radio arrays on the dark (far) side of the moon. With these wide and unimpaired facilities, I expect we will see a new layer of detail.
I doubt I'll see a gravity lense telescope in anyone Alives life, but I would like to see a solar/fission sail craft sent out as soon as possible, and the sail could then be used as a reflector at the solar lensing point to give greater focus.
As usual, a well-done article, but this one has a major flaw: implying we can get to far planets to find other civilizations. You were right to observe that, at 100 light years away, we would see 100-year-old images. But if we wanted to visit them, it would take at least another hundred years to get there at the speed of light. That would require going about 40,000 times faster than we've ever gone before, and then to stop near the planet. The trip would take centuries in cold space, and another century to send messages back. Humanity has a huge job ahead to keep from wiping ourselves out, and suggesting we might save ourselves by space travel is a cruel joke. There are many limits to growth, and we have already exceeded many, and old behavior won't work. The obvious solution is too obvious: Just shift our development standards from quantity, which has limits, to quality, derived from better information, which has no apparent limit.
Thanks for sharing! I didn’t know much about telescopes, but the history is fascinating.
If we had a gravitational lens, would it only be able to see a small portion of space? (ie whatever was on the other side of the line from the telescope to the sun)
If so, presumably the telescope would be orbiting the sun so we’d eventually be able to scan a ring of space that way. I wonder how many such telescopes, or what kind of fuel and engine tech we’d need to be able to get a complete picture of the cosmos around us…