5 ms·

We need to send a probe to make measurements... *googles WASP-76 b* *640 light years away* Hmmm, how are we going to do this?

• Grimburger 4y ago
  Slowly and with a lot of patience.
• selcuka 4y ago
  > 640 light years away Inventing a better telescope would be quicker. Granted we would only see how they looked like ~640 years ago, but that's not a long time for measuring their technology level, especially if their average lifespan is similar to ours.
  • dmitriid 4y ago
    > but that's not a long time for measuring their technology level, especially if their average lifespan is similar to ours. 2022-640=1382 The age of tech. advances such as water mills and three-crop rotation.
    • prennert 4y ago
      This is just about the time banking became a thing in Italy. Most(?) humans would still be in pre-history. Maybe you could detect increased activity along the silk-road if you look closely. Pollution levels in the atmosphere would still be dominated by volcanic activity. No guarantee that this planet would ever get anywhere...
      • bigbillheck 4y ago
        > Most(?) humans would still be in pre-history This is a very non-standard use of the term 'pre-history'.
    • andyjohnson0 4y ago
      Or if "they" are only a thousand years ahead of us technologically then 640 years ago could be when they started building large visible structures like space elevators or orbiting habitats.
    • LeifCarrotson 4y ago
      Sure, those don't feel much like tech at our current pace of change, but it's millions of years further up the tech tree than, say, feathers, thermoregulation, photosynthesis, or multicellular organisms.
• naasking 4y ago
  > 640 light years away Hmmm, how are we going to do this? By using the sun as a giant lens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d0EGIt1SPc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d0EGIt1SPc