For eleven minutes the great 85-ft.
radio telescope at Goldstone in the Mojave Desert beamed a burst of powerful microwaves at the sky. Then scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory turned off their transmitter and switched on a sensitive receiver. Almost at once a glowing line on an oscilloscope screen broke into dancing ripples. The waves of the transmitter had traveled 60.5 million miles into space and bounced back from the tiny planet Mercury.
This was man's first radar contact with the distant planet. It is a tough target to hit, for it...
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