8 upvotes, 3 direct replies (showing 3)
View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
I know a lot of the imagery we get of distant planets, nebulae and galaxies are heightened images, exposed over hours and days, taken in infrared or other wavelengths of invisible light.
Is there a resource or examples of completely 'raw' images in the form of what these things would look like if we were at an optimal distance looking out of a spacecraft porthole?
For instance, as dim as the sun is way out at Pluto, I doubt it would appear as bright as those famous heart photos make it appear.
And I'm willing to bet those cloudy star factories only appear that dense because we are so far away--that if we could get close enough to see them filling the cupola of the ISS, that it probably wouldn't be visible at all.
Comment by nivlark at 13/09/2023 at 17:07 UTC
13 upvotes, 0 direct replies
For your first question: NASA has a "Pluto Time" page[1] which will tell you when the sunlight at your location (typically just after sunset) will match the intensity of the midday Sun on Pluto.
1: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/dwarf-planets/pluto/plutotime/
For your second: nebulae appear dense because they are large, not because they are far away. If you were located inside one, you wouldn't be able to tell from your immediate surroundings, but distant objects like other stars would be blocked out, just like we cannot see the stars "behind" nebulae as viewed from Earth.
Comment by atomfullerene at 14/09/2023 at 07:17 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
For instance, as dim as the sun is way out at Pluto, I doubt it would appear as bright as those famous heart photos make it appear.
You might be surprised, the human eye has an enormous capacity to make things in dim light appear bright. It basically operates on a logarithmic scale. So the surface of the of Pluto would be about as well-lit as earth at sunset or on a stormy day. It'd look reasonably bright, because your eyes would adjust to the dim light.
Comment by Crazy_questioner at 14/09/2023 at 01:10 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
All nasa observational data is open access.... The catch is, I don't know if everything is imaged in the way you think. Especially if it's mostly not in the visible spectrum. Afik it's in numerical data files that you have to be trained to interpret or manipulate.
Some one can add on if I'm missing something.