I got to visit the telescope earlier this year, its pretty cool. In a forest outside some small towns. For how well connected the Netherlands is, its pretty hard to reach.
We looked at the sun and some planets in radio frequencies (its all radio astronomy with LOFAR nearby).
That they can listen to Voyager with such an old instrument is incredible. It must help that the satellite is aimed at us.
I think you'd have to demonstrate that the forces on its motion were dominated by motion relative to the galactic centre more than other effects, to get there.
Why does its age come in to play? The think they are listening to is old too. The main thing is the size of the dish that allows for it, and then the skills of the operators to find the weak signal in the noise.
They were referring to Dwingeloo [1] in the Netherlands, the telescope used in this article, not Arecibo. It stopped officially operating as a radio telescope in 2000, and has since been used for a variety of astronomy and amateur radio projects.
Because the object you are receiving a signal from is further, thus necessitating more sensitive receiving equipment that couldn't have existed in the past?
Superconducting detectors and materials science have obviously advanced leaps and bounds in the last 30 years: it's really not up for debate or a premise that can be "bought."
It made a big impression on me as a kid when visiting the telescope with my family. The exhibition outside taught me about Pluto's weird orbit and made me a Pluto fan.
I went there again with my own kids a couple of years ago and it was a bit disappointing. Not much to see. The solar system walk at the WSRT at Westerbork nearby is still cool.
I think it was deliberately built in a more remote area to avoid interference from other signals? When I was a kid (25 years ago :-)) I went on holiday in that area a few times, there were signs to tell people not to use radio equipment in the nature areas around the telescope.
It's cool that they kept it operational for amateurs and education.
We looked at the sun and some planets in radio frequencies (its all radio astronomy with LOFAR nearby).
That they can listen to Voyager with such an old instrument is incredible. It must help that the satellite is aimed at us.