#assuming constant 3g acceleration and that all beetles make it
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I'm a professional astronomer who uses almost exclusively JWST data, and today I used JWST's Exposure Time Calculator for the first time. But it wasn't to plan my observations. It was to plan a hypothetical observation in the Project Hail Mary universe to calculate when they'd be able to see the rocket flares from the beetles.
#project hail mary#the answer is about 2 months before they get back#or about 2500 AU#assuming constant 3g acceleration and that all beetles make it#and assuming 7 days of integration time to get an SNR of 2#(and that they use astrophage tech to refuel/recool jwst and upgrade its coronograph)#(otherwise the glow from the beetles will be drowned out by tau ceti)
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