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13th of January 2023
The distance problem in astronomy
One of the big challenges in astronomy is determining the distance to celestial objects. If a supernova shell is close to our solar system, it will appear to be much larger than if is on the other side of the Galaxy. Knowing the distance to an object is therefore important in understanding its true size. Which brings us to the 5m-sized spiders crawling over the 70m DSS-43 antenna at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complext at Tidbinbilla... As scary as it might seem, the reflection in the window visible to the right of the image provides the explanation -- the regular-sized spider is nearby, on the outside of the window that the distant 70m antenna was photographed through. Phew! (Image credit: @CanberraDSN)



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