It helps that we know exactly where to look for it the signal, but I agree it's insane that it's so far away and we can still communicate with it 49 years later. This was launched in 1977, it's running on half-century-old tech and still partly functional. And the main reason it's only partly functional is that we shut down features to save on power.

The Deep Space Network uses 70 meter parabolic antennas, along with multiple 34 meter antennas located in California, Spain, and Canberra Australia. Pointed precisely at the known location of the probe allows the antennas to detect enough of the signal to decode it from the background noise.

It's a testament to both how easy and difficult it is to look out in to space.

Easy, because even the weakest signal travels immense distances, as there is almost nothing to slow it down or stop it.

Difficult, because the only reason we can receive this signal is because we can pinpoint the exact location and frequency of said signal.

There could be aliens sending us messages right now, but buried in the noise of the cosmos. 🤷‍♂️

It will take voyager 300 years to reach the Oort cloud and about 30,000 years to pass through it.

Worst commute in the Milky Way

"Ahhh, I forgot my socket set"

Fascists can't destroy the knowledge on it

You know what they say, the best time to shoot you into space was 50 years ago. The second best time is now.

I could've done it myself if they shot me into space yesterday at the speed of light.

Personally I prefer the whale doomsday machine over the machine one.

You need to caveat that with “current tech”. If you had asked someone 2-300 years ago if we’d be flying regularly, they’d look at you like you were insane. 100 years ago if you asked if we’d ever leave the plaent, they’d say “no”.

It seems impossible until you get that one technological breakthrough though and then suddenly it feels trivial.

Just the distance to the moon is mind boggling if you see it properly to scale. You can fit another 30 Earths in the distance.

What about the next closest finish?