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A comment on First habitable exoplanet discovered?. Parent comment

Re:First habitable exoplanet discovered? by nopassrecover on Tuesday May 17, 2011 @01:02AM (#2555334)
It takes light 40 years to get there and back at 1,079,252,849 km/h, and the fastest spacecraft we have currently are the Helios Solar Probes at 252,792 km/h - it would take over 170,000 years before the probe returned.
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Re:First habitable exoplanet discovered? by pohl on Tuesday May 17, 2011 @09:00AM (#2556191)
Let's grant the speed of light on the return side. Say we invent a method of transmitting probe data using radio waves or something.
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Re:First habitable exoplanet discovered? by nooneelse on Tuesday May 17, 2011 @11:02AM (#2556551)
Getting data back via radio seems physically realistic using the gravitational lensing of EM by our sun. It would require us to put a receiving and relay station very var out beyond the planets, at least 550AU, I think. But by the time we are sending a probe several light years, then 550AU should practically be child's play.

A good paper about using such lensing: "Interstellar radio links enhanced by exploiting the Sun as a Gravitational Lens" by Claudio Maccone.

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