4 ms·
The signals propagate at the exact speed of light, but you're on point on the risk being minimal. Space is big.
by Tar90 9y ago
The signals propagate at the exact speed of light, but you're on point on the risk being minimal. Space is big.
- andyjohnson0 9y agoI'm not the grandparent poster, but I think that "even if they moved at a fraction of speed of light" refers to the responding civilisation's space vessels, not their return signal.
- arkh 9y agoLet's say you receive an EM signal from a sentient specie. If you pinpoint its origin to light years away, you know they already had a lot of time to progress past this technology. A good response if you plan on eliminating them would not be a fleet: you'd better setup and direct a huge gamma-ray burst in their general direction. So the destructive response could come at the speed of light with a little delay at first.