this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2024
186 points (97.4% liked)
Technology
59429 readers
2693 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Oh dear, it appears the once-great NASA has now stooped so low as to beg for our outdated smartphones during this year's solar eclipse. It's a shameful sight to see the once-proud organization that sent men to the moon is now reduced to soliciting cell phones from the public just to carry out basic astronomical observations. I guess that's what happens when Democrats get their grubby little hands on things - they turn them into inefficient messes. How absurd that these rocket scientists can't manage a simple observation without relying on citizens' phones!
Did you read the article? Could you give a few quotes as to why that is your main takeaway here?
I feel like the comment was sarcastic. At least, that's how I read it in my head.
The problem is, this is how a certain demographic unironically thinks sometimes.
Nope, based on the user's comment history, they're a conservative nutjob.
No, this is not basic. I should really not engage with a troll, but for anyone else curious about why this is cool:
Current estimates on the size of the sun are on the order of +-1000km. "Wright said different papers using a variety of methods have produced results that differ by as much as 930 miles (1,500 km)"
This request for cell phone observations is trying to do some wild math way out of my comprehension, based on the flashes of light shining between mountains and valleys on the moon, to calculate the size of the sun down to single-digit kilometer accuracy. That's three orders of magnitude more accurate than our current measurements. And this type of measurement can only happen during an eclipse.
To me that is absolutely wild, good job NASA 🚀