We’ve all heard the statistic that the Apollo 11 spacecraft successfully landed us on the Moon with less computing power than an iPhone. Now, a prototype radar system being tested at the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia has captured the most detailed photograph ever. months from Soil Using a less powerful transmitter than a microwave oven.

“It’s incredible what we’ve managed to capture this time using less energy than a typical household appliance,” said U. Declaration Patrick Taylor, GBO and NRAO Radar Division Chief.

The prototype is a collaboration between the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). Green Bank Observatory (GBO) and Raytheon Intelligence & Space (RIS). The partnership is developing a next-generation planetary radar system for GBT that can be used to study celestial bodies on our home planet. solar system.

For the test, the engineers equipped the GBT with a 700-watt radar transmitter. They aimed the transmitter at the moon, and the radar echoes returned to NRAO’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), which has 10 antennas in the United States. The result is a super-detailed 16.4-foot (5 meter) view of Tycho Crater – the highest resolution image of the Moon ever taken from Earth.

The long-term goal of the project is to equip the GBT with a 500 kilowatt radar and then use the VLBA and the upcoming Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) as receivers. With almost 1000 times more output power than the prototype transmitter, the resulting images will be even sharper. The team tested the prototype on a space rock as well as on the moon. “During our testing, we were able to stay focused. asteroids For 2.1 million kilometers [1,3 мільйона миль] “It’s five times the distance from us from Earth to the Moon,” Taylor said. “The size of the asteroid is about one kilometer [0,6 милі]enough to cause global destruction in the event of a collision.”

And radar is a vital tool for astronomers who want to accurately map an asteroid’s trajectory and assess whether it poses a threat to Earth. “With a high-power system, we can examine more objects more,” Patrick said. “When it comes to strategizing about potential impacts, having more warning time is everything.”