Gas Clouds As Giant Telescopes

allrong writes "Astronomers have found a way to harness clouds of gas in space to make a natural 'telescope' more powerful than any manmade telescope currently in operation. Read the press release or take a look at the images and description of the process."

You know

[I Am The Owl]

People always reported seeing visions when I farted, but I never knew there was a scientific basis for their claims!

gas

[SirHalcyon]

Finally a worth cause to donate the result of all the bean burritos I eat.

Re:Ok, but...

[Winterblink]

Not unless you can harness the power of the Q Continuum and move the cloud wherever you want.

Men In Black

[dfj225]

So that seemingly made up excuse for the explosion of the truck in MIB caused by light reflecting off of some gas is now about to be a reality.

NASA Surrenders

[boog3r]

NASA requests 4.2 bazillion (USD) to fly out there and fix the optics...

images of the process

[Lu Xun]

I'm so glad they included those giant [csiro.au] 5mb copies of the images. Those puny little jpegs just weren't enough to explain the process to me. If there's no scrollbar, it's too small.

Radiotelescope/repeater

[stratjakt]

I was recently reading in Astronomer Monthly magazine that scientists now believe they can get usable signals from Voyager, long after they should be too faint, because they are amplified by the giant gas cloud that hovers around Uranus.

Sounds like a Star Trek TNG episode

[mao che minh]

Data: "Captain, I believe that I could alter our cosmotic arrays in order to tune it's radio signals, refract them off of the gas cloud using hyperspace signaling. This will allow us a more acute and reversed polarity view of the Romulan fleet ahead"

Picard: "Geordi, do we still have the power left to do this?"

Geordi: "I suppose it's possible.....I'll need to divert power from the shields and possibly redirect the conduits to decks 10 through 20, but yes, it can be done"

*10 seconds of silence pass while the rest of the officers shoot uneasy glances towards one another*

Picard: "Make it so. Number one, join me in the ready room...."

Gas

[DarkZero]

Feh. Sounds like vaporware to me.

Re:So what you're saying is...

[Anonymous Coward]

How can you read a space story about giant gas clouds and not make a cheap Uranus crack?

It's free karma and loads of fun.

Re:Practicality?

[t0ny]

Sure, they might be able to see things in super-fine detail. But how often is there going to be a gas cloud that acts as a perfect lens for whatever you want to look at?

When you want to see something, pull my finger.

New NASA diet

[ehiris]

Beans and beans over beans. :)

Re:Doesnt it mean

[p3d0]

Moderators, *please* stop modding up questions that are answered in the article.

What's that smell?

[cre8tor]

Oh - It's Uranus.