Is there any point at which the distance becomes too large to the extreme where you basically get “deleted” from existence?

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    Nope, the signals will attenuate into noise pretty quickly. LOL, unless they’re using a quasar to communicate.

    I feel like people usually miss this bit: Electromagnetic signals, light, etc., decrease by the inverse square law. Here’s a pic that illustrates better than I can write it out. Double the distance from the source, signal drops to 1/4 strength, move out the same distance again, all ya got is 1/9 strength. tldr: The signal strength drops fast.

    After a very short distance, cosmically speaking, the signal becomes indistinguishable from universal background radiation and no magic science fiction can filter out a clean copy.

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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      19 hours ago

      This ^. You can think about a radio source just like a visible light source. It fades out over distance because the energy emission is spreading out. If there are other light sources that are of similar or greater strength between you and that light, it will be basically impossible to distinguish the one light that you care about from everything else.