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Space laser transmission strikes Earth from 140 million miles away: NASA


Earth just received a laser transmission from a world (and perhaps universe) record-breaking 140 million miles away — which could have major implications for the future of space travel.

This visualization shows the Psyche spacecraft’s position on April 8 when the DSOC flight laser transceiver transmitted data at a rate of 25 Mbps over 140 million miles to a downlink station on Earth. NASA wanted to show the potential for laser communications to be conducted across interstellar distances, allowing for high bandwidth and a much speedier connection — from 10 to 100 times faster than what’s available today — between humans and the probes they send into space. This correspondence — which included footage of an orange tabby cat named Taters — took just over a minute and a half to reach Earth, which is comparable to broadband internet speeds.

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