Re:A large asteroid recently flew close to Earth
by CydeWeys on Monday January 09, 2017 @06:32PM
(#13360962)
Active radar is subject to n^4 (!!!) drop-off with distance and as such is not useful for astronomical observation of any sort. Only passive detection is useful, which has a much more manageable dropoff of n^2. And asteroids don't emit radio waves, but they do reflect the Sun's light.
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Re:A large asteroid recently flew close to Earth
by snrplfth on Monday January 09, 2017 @07:45PM
(#13361504)
I think they're talking about the Goldstone Array: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldstone_Solar_System_Radar
It's used for high-res imaging of asteroids that pass close by.