this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
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xkcd #3278: Vera Rubin Observatory

Title text:

'Spurious signals from the kitchen' is harder for an optical telescope than a radio one, but with enough determination and creativity, I believe it's possible.

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3278/

explainxkcd for #3278

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[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 days ago

Space (free)

[–] AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

To me Pluto will always be the 9th planet no matter what some fancy pants says it not being able to clean up its orbit. My home is also a little messy that doesn't mean it's not home.

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 2 days ago

Whatever you say, Jerry

[–] mossy_@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I feel like an observatory that detects space is malfunctioning. they're supposed to look past that stuff yeah?

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

Staring into space is how we discovered the Hubble Deep Field.

[–] Ooops@feddit.org 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That's actually dark matter they fail to see...

[–] mossy_@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

not so much "fail to see space" as "space is an obstacle between earth and the things we want to see", similar to earth's atmosphere getting in the way

[–] Ooops@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

No, I meant discovering that see-through area (space) by failing to find the (dark) matter expected there.

[–] mossy_@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I seee... figuratively speaking

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Signal from the kitchen seems more likely than a Earth sized TNO

I'm going for the long odds on Vera's spaceship. Just deciding on column/row (I don't know how to play bingo)