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| ||||| Monday, March 11, 2002 - 02:11 am I was wondering can the space telescope(Hubble)be used to take picture of other planets, like Mars, Venus, etc., in more details than the satelites can? I mean, it can take pictures of distance galaxies and stars forming very clearly million, billions of miles away (which are probably moving objects, i.e. the cloud-like structure?). If it could take pictures that far, wouldn't it be cheaper to just point the telescope towards a planet in our solar system and survey it that way, intead of sending millions of dollars worth of satelites (satellites?)into its orbit? Thanks for your time. -Sonephet Manivong | |
| ||||| Monday, March 11, 2002 - 08:49 am Hubble has taken images of planets. Check http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/SubjectT.html. However different the scientific instruments on our satellites have different strengths. One might look at x-rays while another looks at infrared signals. Just like people, it is impossible for one instrument to be all things to everyone. | |
| ||||| Monday, March 11, 2002 - 06:10 pm Salamie, Hubble sees distance galaxies clearly because galaxies are huge. Planets are tiny in comparison. The detail I think you are seeking is not at all possible with Hubble, you need satellites to the planet for that sort of detail. So in direct answer to your question, unfortunately, we cannot save money in this fashion. Hubble can get nice pictures of the planets and some over all detail, but not survey type detail. To clarify what I am saying, follow this example of something you might do on Earth. Imagine you are sitting in a nice scenic picnic area. Miles away are beautiful mountains. You can see them clearly and you even can identify that there are trees on the mountain. Now you look at an ant some five feet away. You can see that it is an ant, but you really can't get a detail look at to see if maybe a leg has been injured in a battle or something. This is like the difference between looking at galaxies (the mountains) and planets (the ant) with the Hubble Telescope. Does this help you understand this? And why Hubble cannot substitute for Planetary probes? | |
| ||||| Thursday, March 14, 2002 - 04:21 pm Thanks guys. The info was helpful. | |
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