Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

DARPA's New Hi-Tech Telescope

Posted by samzenpus on from the shiny-new-toys dept.

coondoggie writes "You can bet that if there are little red aliens running around on Mars, or spaceships patrolling other planets in our solar system for that matter, a recently powered-up telescope built by researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency might just be able to see them. The Air Force, which operates the DARPA-developed Space Surveillance Telescope says the telescope's design, featuring unique image-capturing technology known as a curved charge coupled device system, as well as very wide field-of-view, large-aperture optics, doesn't require the long optics train of a more traditional telescopes."

5 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. I wonder what the Air Force needs to track... by PmanAce · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Will this be exclusive to Men in Black or will scientists be able to use this wonder as well?

    --
    Tired of my customary (Score:1)
  2. acronym fail? by jollyreaper · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Curved Charged Coupled Device? Wouldn't that be CCCD?

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  3. Joking? by wcrowe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You can bet that if there are little red aliens running around on Mars...

    You're joking, right? That telescope is going to be pointed at little humans of all colors running around on Earth.

    --
    Proverbs 21:19
    1. Re:Joking? by Raenex · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You know it's a telescope and not a satellite.

      Those two aren't mutually exclusive.

    2. Re:Joking? by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's "tossed around" because of things like the average American "black" having 1/3 of their genes coming from European ancestors. Do they have a "race"? What about Obama? Does he have a "race"? If you posit that he's 50% "black" and 50% "white", then what of his children? They have a mother with some undetermined amount of European and African ancestry. How many generations do you try to keep track of? How many do you go back with? Do you have some kind of a genetic or physical test that can determine his "race" with any kind of scientific rigor?

      Even that chart you linked has all sorts of little red marks in the supposed purple "race". So yes, you can say things like "people with an ancestor from x region are more likely to have y trait". But that is worlds different from being able to toss people into categories. All it takes is for one of those ancestors with y trait to walk over to another part of the world and mate to throw off your classification system... that's not of very much use.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.