I was wondering, when the probe landed on the moon Titan. How does it send back pictures? And why don't they put a high quality camera on the probe so that they get much clearer pictures?
2006-08-01 16:55:21 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
It's just that when ever I see pictures of Titan or whatever, it's always this hazy, bad quality image.
2006-08-01 16:58:13 · update #1
Hmmm.. the photos look pretty clear to me. After all the photos are pretty much of a big empty rock. But seriously....
The cameras (called the ISS package) are actually not too bad. The Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) consists of a wide angle camera, with angular resolution of 60 microradians per pixel, and a narrow angle camera, with angular resolution of 6.0 microradians per pixel. The sensors are 1024x1024 CCD arrays.
The data is compressed, transmitted back to earth and then decompressed, filterd and corrected -- so they do a lot of processing to make the photos as good as possible.
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2006-08-01 17:42:20 · answer #1 · answered by EdmondDoc 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well, you've got to remember that in order to have a better picture, you have to have a better camera - a bigger camera - a heavier camera. Any photographic equipment put onto a probe is most likely going to be a cross between image quality, functionality, and feasibility.
When Huygens landed on Titan, it spatted down in, what planetary scientists think, mud. They also think that it's constantly drizzling methane and ethane on Titan, so there could have been junk on the lens.
Furthermore, these images are being transmitted several hundred million miles back to Earth. The quality of microwave communication decreases the further its transmitted, and since there's such a distance between Saturn and Earth - sometimes, I wonder at the fact that we're able to receive images at all.
Hope this helps!
2006-08-01 17:21:01 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The images has to go through a large distance and has to be compressed and decompressed like in e-mail. A high quality camera would be more expensive and heavy than normal cameras. Anyway, the camera is already pretty good.
2006-08-01 20:09:11 · answer #3 · answered by Eric X 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋