Abstract
The gravitational lens of the Sun is an astrophysical phenomenon predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. It implies that, if we can send a probe along any radial direction away from the Sun up to the minimal distance of 550 AU and beyond, the Sun’s mass will act as a huge magnifying lens, letting us “see” detailed radio maps of whatever may lie on its other side even at very large distances. This author’s recent book (Maccone, 2009) studies such future FOCAL space missions to 550 AU and beyond.
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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Maccone, C. (2011). Focusing the Galactic Internet. In: Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13196-7_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13196-7_18
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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Online ISBN: 978-3-642-13196-7
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