Would something similar be possible in IR? The Voyagers emit several hundred W of thermal power. There's an interesting estimate over on the XKCD forums:QuoteWe have a power source of 420 W at 1.78×1010 km, which gives a brightness of 1×10-19 Wm-2, or an apparent magnitude of 28. That is just visible for a big ground-based telescope....I'm not convinced that that would be enough, because the Voyagers are much smaller than the resolution of any IR telescope we have.
We have a power source of 420 W at 1.78×1010 km, which gives a brightness of 1×10-19 Wm-2, or an apparent magnitude of 28. That is just visible for a big ground-based telescope....
Why does the radio signal come in as an elongated oval?