Earlier quoted context omitted.
First rule in government spending: Why build one when you can have two at twice the price? If only this was true.
A relevant Contact quote, on the topic of Space? nicely done.
Wanna take a ride?
Hubble Captures Crisp New Image of Jupiter and Europa
81–90 of 100 posts
Re: Hubble Captures Crisp New Image of Jupiter and Europa
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
I looked at the Jupiter and Saturn with a modest 14 inch telescope last week https://www.darkskyproject.co.nz/tours/crater-experience/ The two planets themselves, and the four large moons of Jupiter and of course the rings of Saturn were all very visible, and this kind of old school technology has been available for hundreds of years. But basically I agree, Hubble and robot planetary exploration are awesome.
How good is the nighttime visibility in New Zealand given its a somewhat isolated island? Here is California I would have drive somewhere out far for it to be dark enough.
It's absolutely insane. It's not just a starry night - it's as if the sky is DRIPPING with stars. Why even go to sleep?
Re: Hubble Captures Crisp New Image of Jupiter and Europa
#83For one Hubble, something like a dozen of Keyhole spy telescopes have been launched [0]. Just imagine the kind of science we would have gotten if we launched a dozen of Hubbles instead... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_Kennen
Imagine what an array of such camera's could do if pointed at one spot in space.
Re: Hubble Captures Crisp New Image of Jupiter and Europa
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
The deep field images are not a significant fraction of the total scientific output of Hubble.
Nope, they are the icons of the project. Images from the edge of reality. They significantly impacted how I grew up seeing the universe though, and I’m sure I’m not alone on this.
In that case, you're arguing that a greater fraction of time with scientific instruments should be devoted to publicly consumable results. That's fine; I mostly agree. But that's not the claim under discussion, which is whether we would have much more total scientific impact if we had many more Hubbles.
Re: Hubble Captures Crisp New Image of Jupiter and Europa
#85Beautiful
Re: Hubble Captures Crisp New Image of Jupiter and Europa
#86Looks like a painting. How cool is it that we actually have the technology to finally see these odd planets!?
If you have a DSLR or similar camera (the lens/objective that comes with DSLRs is usually good enough) and a tripod, you can even photograph moons (plural!) of Jupiter yourself!
To avoid disappointments, I must set expectations correctly, though: they will be no more than a few tiny white dots next to a brighter dot (Jupiter itself) but either way: you will have photographed moons of a different planet all by yourself!
Edit: a few tips if you would like to try: make sure to use a tripod, as holding the camera is not going to work. A delayed release or remote release helps a lot because tiny movements of the camera while pressing the release will show in the image. Don't choose the exposure time too long as this will make Earth's rotation visible. The results are not going to be great but knowing that these are actual moons, hundreds of millions of kilometers away, will be a nice thing anyways.
Re: Hubble Captures Crisp New Image of Jupiter and Europa
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think one can readily argue (and I'm a physicist, so I really love outward-looking telescopes) that reconnaissance satellites will tend to make the world a more-peaceful place. Uncertainty can lead humans to make decisions to handle a worst-case scenario that isn't actually taking place. High-quality imaging makes it difficult for nation-states to bluff or to understate the scale of decay/disaster and allows for fi…
I do not disagree with this. I wanted to point out an order of magnitude difference between science, and politics (of fear?). We built nuclear power plants not because we needed electricity, but because we needed plutonium for the bomb. We went to the moon in part because "it is hard", but mainly as a way to stick it to the Russkies. We built space telescopes to spy on the "opponent". Yes, that did indeed kept the wo…
You could extend the argument to intra-national competition. What if instead of competing with each other, we were all aligned towards common goals. Unfortunately and sadly, such is human nature that we are hardly motivated by much else than one-upping each other.
Re: Hubble Captures Crisp New Image of Jupiter and Europa
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do not disagree with this. I wanted to point out an order of magnitude difference between science, and politics (of fear?). We built nuclear power plants not because we needed electricity, but because we needed plutonium for the bomb. We went to the moon in part because "it is hard", but mainly as a way to stick it to the Russkies. We built space telescopes to spy on the "opponent". Yes, that did indeed kept the wo…
You could extend the argument to intra-national competition. What if instead of competing with each other, we were all aligned towards common goals. Unfortunately and sadly, such is human nature that we are hardly motivated by much else than one-upping each other.
This is true. Instead of competing against each other, we -I mean all nations and individuals - should do something to support efforts so that humans can some day escape this planet. Earth is not habitable forever.
Re: Hubble Captures Crisp New Image of Jupiter and Europa
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
How good is the nighttime visibility in New Zealand given its a somewhat isolated island? Here is California I would have drive somewhere out far for it to be dark enough.
It's absolutely insane. It's not just a starry night - it's as if the sky is DRIPPING with stars. Why even go to sleep?
Where about are you looking from?
Re: Hubble Captures Crisp New Image of Jupiter and Europa
#90For one Hubble, something like a dozen of Keyhole spy telescopes have been launched [0]. Just imagine the kind of science we would have gotten if we launched a dozen of Hubbles instead... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_Kennen
The NRO actually donated a couple suspiciously Hubble-like satellites to NASA a few years ago. They'd removed all the electronics, of course, and the lenses are shaped to better capture terrestrial images, but still! Loose pocket change from the intelligence agencies. Of course, I'm sure Hubble got funded because of Keyhole in the first place.
> the lenses are shaped to better capture terrestrial images,
Hubble's optics don't use lenses. Do you have any evidence that KH-11 satellites use lenses? Also, I could be wrong, but I thought that the orbits of Keyhole satellites are high enough relative to the primary mirror diameters that the difference between focusing something on the earth's surface and focusing at infinity (columated light) is within the mirror polishing tolerances, so for all intents an purposes both Earth observation and astronomical telescopes have mirrors shaped to focus at infinity. Am I wrong?
Is sharper focus what you mean by "better capture terrestrial images"? I thought that the main difference in the mirrors was that image intelligence satellites generally have lower magnification / wider field of view than orbiting astronomical telescopes. If you were to point Hubble at Earth (and not burn out its instruments due to the brightness), I don't think you'd get a less sharp image than you'd get from a mirror ground for image intelligence (assuming same manufacturing tolerances/technology). My understanding is that diffraction and atmospheric distortion dominate the image clarity issues for image intelligence satellites, so there's little to nothing to gain for going narrower field of view / higher magnification.