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Radio Signals and Mars
Greetings to all ...
My wife and I got into a discussion last nite after looking at Mars through the telescope. A question arised and we were wondering if someone could answer it ... If a radio signal travels at the speed of light (186,200 miles per second), then how long would it take it to get to Mars - from Earth? 36,000,000 miles is a very long way for a radio signal to travel Thanks in advance! -- Phil |
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"Phil" wrote in message
... Greetings to all ... My wife and I got into a discussion last nite after looking at Mars through the telescope. A question arised and we were wondering if someone could answer it ... If a radio signal travels at the speed of light (186,200 miles per second), then how long would it take it to get to Mars - from Earth? 36,000,000 miles is a very long way for a radio signal to travel (36,000,000 miles)/(186,200 miles/sec) = 193.34 seconds Or about 3.2 minutes. Radio signals are just electromagnetic in nature just as light is (light is just higher in frequency than what we consider to be radio waves). So consider how much further the "signals" from the distant stars have come compared to one from Mars. |
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"Phil" wrote in message
... Greetings to all ... My wife and I got into a discussion last nite after looking at Mars through the telescope. A question arised and we were wondering if someone could answer it ... If a radio signal travels at the speed of light (186,200 miles per second), then how long would it take it to get to Mars - from Earth? 36,000,000 miles is a very long way for a radio signal to travel Thanks in advance! -- Phil Simply divide the distance by the speed to get time. 36,000,000 miles / 186,200 miles/sec = 193 seconds, or a little over 3 minutes. This distance is very small compared to the signals still being received from the Voyger probes now beyond the edge of the solar system. And that is very small compared to the radio signals being received through radiotelescopes from objects billions of light-years away. Hap Griffin |
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Thanks Greg and Hap for your quick responses!
If a radio signal travels at the speed of light (186,200 miles per second), then how long would it take it to get to Mars - from Earth? 36,000,000 miles is a very long way for a radio signal to travel |
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Hello Hap
And that is very small compared to the radio signals being received through radiotelescopes from objects billions of light-years away. I could only imagine the distances involved ... I have been very interested how science and radio telescopes make images from radio signals - fascinating! Is the Quasar still the furthest object known? If so how far from Earth? |
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Phil wrote:
Is the Quasar still the furthest object known? If so how far from Earth? Some quasars are among the furthest discrete observable objects, but space at similar distances is also populated by young galaxies. Depending on how you define "object", though, the CMBR (cosmic microwave background radiation) might count as the furthest, as it represents the point in time when the universe became transparent to radiation nearly fourteen billion years ago, therefore nearly fourteen billion light-years away. -- Odysseus |
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In message , Odysseus
writes Phil wrote: Is the Quasar still the furthest object known? If so how far from Earth? Some quasars are among the furthest discrete observable objects, but space at similar distances is also populated by young galaxies. Depending on how you define "object", though, the CMBR (cosmic microwave background radiation) might count as the furthest, as it represents the point in time when the universe became transparent to radiation nearly fourteen billion years ago, therefore nearly fourteen billion light-years away. One problem with finding the "most distant" object is that the estimates of the size and age of the universe keep changing :-) For instance, looking through Andrew Yee's posts (which I find are worth keeping) there's a report of the discovery of a quasar in galaxy J1148+5251, estimated to have formed 870 million years after the Big Bang and to be 12.8 billion light years away. This was in July 2003. But in March 2002 (i.e. before the recent WMAP findings) a galaxy formed 780 million years after the Bang was estimated to be 15.5 billion years away. This was a normal galaxy. -- "Forty millions of miles it was from us, more than forty millions of miles of void" |
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Is the Quasar still the furthest object known? If so how far from Earth? Ckeck out this image from the Hubble Deep Field. The arrow points to a fairly ordinary-looking galaxy at extreme redshift, placing it even farther back than the quasars- http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960628.html oc To reply by e-mail please use anti-spam address: oldcoot88atwebtv.net Change 'at' to@ |
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