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A Telescope as Big as the Earth

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the now-come-the-arguments-on-where-to-point-it-next dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "A week ago, seven telescopes around the world were linked together to watch a distant galaxy called 3C273 in real time and create a single world telescope. The data from these telescopes, which are located in Australia, China and Europe, was streamed around the world at a rate of 256 Mb per second. One of the Australian researchers involved in the project said that it was the first time that astronomers have been able to instantaneously connect telescopes half a world apart. He added that 'the diameter of the Earth is 12,750 km and the two most widely separated telescopes in our experiment were 12,304 km apart.'"

11 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Unfortunately... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...all data from the Shanghai telescope was filtered and replaced with promotional material for the Peoples Republic of China. Apparently the galaxy bears a striking resemblance to Chairman Mao.

  2. Central Obstruction by Liquidrage · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wow! And I thought SCT's had a large central obstruction.

    Ok. That might be the geekiest joke in the histroy of /.
    :(

  3. All at once by Blitz22 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I for one, welcome our giant eyed, galactic..... I soviet Russia, the world telescopes .... Scientist can finally peer deep into goat..... be gentle.

    --
    If I went around claiming I was an emperor...they'd put me away!
  4. Heh by Scott+Lockwood · · Score: 4, Funny

    Imagine a Beowolf Cluster of these!

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  5. Re:FYI by moderatorrater · · Score: 4, Funny

    I read up on it, but I didn't see the downsides of this technique being discussed. What's the drawback of using this technique as opposed to an actual earth-sized telescope?

  6. Lightspeed Broken! by ec_hack · · Score: 4, Funny

    One of the Australian researchers involved in the project said that it was the first time that astronomers have been able to instantaneously connect telescopes half a world apart.

    This is the real story - FTL communications!

  7. No, it runs Windows ME. by PalmKiller · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just seconds after the feeds started the galaxy imagery was somehow lost and replaced with the standard BSOD screen.

  8. Wrong it is not 4.22 years. by arthurpaliden · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually light from the closest know star takes about 8 minutes to get to the earth.

    --
    Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
    1. Re:Wrong it is not 4.22 years. by MollyB · · Score: 4, Funny

      From the photons' POV it takes no time at all. (ducks)

  9. Re:Really? by powerpants · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dammit, how about a spoiler alert! Not everyone's a speed reader.

  10. Re:Really? by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Jesus, if you haven't read it after 1250 years, you're going to have to live with the spoilers!

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