• Maalus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    8 hours ago

    Astronomers track centimeter-sized objects up in space. Tracking a mosquito in the same room is not an issue. The rest of the “invention” is the problem.

    • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      13 hours ago

      No they don’t. Our greatest success to date was predicting a 1m wide asteroid a whole 3 hours before it hit.

      That’s actually impressive given the challenge at hand. But nobody is tracking centimeter sized objects outside Earths orbit. And the ones they are tracking in orbit are man made trash and not rocks.

      • Maalus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        8 hours ago

        Yeah, they do. 8700 objects tracked that are 10cm or larger at the time of writing the paper. Shitloads of other debris that wasn’t regularly tracked, but could be, at 1cm or similar sizes. Source

        Edit: I also never said “outside Earths orbit”, I said “in space”

          • Maalus@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            2 hours ago

            I said “centimeter sized”, mr Pedant, which is 1cm. Which is possible to track, just not done. The point is if they can track that, they can track a mosquito in the same room. But by all means, keep arguing semantics.

            • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              42 minutes ago

              Astronomers track centimeter-sized objects up in space

              No they don’t

              Which is possible to track, just not done.

              I rest my case. Precision is important in astronomy.