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Space laser transmission strikes Earth from 140 million miles away: NASA
Ben CostMon, April 29, 2024 at 11:11 AM EDT·3 min read
192
This redefined a long-distance call.
Earth just received a laser transmission from a world- (and perhaps universe-) record-breaking 140 million miles away — which could have major implications for the future of space travel.
However, this correspondence wasn’t extraterrestrial in origin: It was actually sent by NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, which is currently located approximately 1.5 times the distance between Earth and the sun.
"Ok, Ok, Ok, we admit it, we sent the message to ourselves" declared a NASA spokesperson. "But to be fair, do you have any idea how boring it is to never have any alien life out their to communicate with all day, every day, 365 days a year, for decade after decade? And just to drive home the point, we spend billions on going to Mars and for what? Red rocks? Come on people we are desperate here for something, anything, to make space exploration the least bit interesting. In my view, this stunt was nothing more than a cry for help and is akin to Tom Hanks creating the soccer ball Wilson to talk with."
"Wilson!!!!"
