I checked some photos of the latest New Horizons mission from space.com and all I get is black and white stills of many of the shots of Jupiter and its moons.
Is NASA that poor it can't afford color cameras to put on their space craft these days? You would think that with all the billions the agency gets, it could at LEAST afford some luxury like getting a color pic of Jupiter or its moons these days.
Or are we doomed to old-style photography for the next 30 years?
2007-03-01 13:31:05 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
New Horizons can do color. But stop and think. This is not a case of downloading a pic off the net--that spacecraft is hundreds of millions away. And has very limited power--you're probably using more in your house right now.
NASA routinely programs probes to send many BW images--but they also do color. The reason is that a BW image takes a lot less data to transmit. Under the contitions they have to operate, that is important--that datastream is overloaded as it is.
2007-03-01 15:22:14 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not a traditional camera they are using. They are using a charged-coupled device (ccd), similar to those in digital cameras but more sensative. These devices count the number of photons you get and translate that into an image. They don't make color versions of these - you have to have several with different filters, or make have a filter wheel availible to change the type of light you're getting. This can be a big disadvantage to a fly-by spacecraft - filter wheels can get stuck, you'll need several pictures of the same field quickly, and that reduces the amount of science you're actually doing. So we use black and white for most astronomy, and add the colors later. That's why you see colored images from Hubble - but they all came out black and white, and the colors were added to represent the filters used.
2007-03-01 14:06:36 · answer #2 · answered by eri 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As has already been said, CCD monochrome cameras collect more data than can be acheived with color cameras because of a filtering layer on the CCD chip. Color is usually achieved by using the monochrome cameras taking multiple exposures with filters. Images taken with color filters that transmit light of differing wavelengths can be combined to get true representation full color pictures with more detail and accuracy than can be achieved with a dedicated color only camera. Color only CCD cameras produce only 8 bit images. 16 - 32 bit images can be produced with mono CCD cameras.
To make a color composite from a spacecraft picture usually takes time. The media will use a black and white image that is available right away to broadcast images to the public.
2007-03-01 14:08:26 · answer #3 · answered by Scott B 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I believe it has to do with getting good contrast between black & white so that features stand out better. They also have color cameras too, but for seeing fine detail they use B&W. You can check out some good quality B&W photography on the internet and, if it's been taken by a good photographer, you'll see that detail tends to stand out more than in a color photo.
2007-03-01 13:37:33 · answer #4 · answered by Digital Haruspex 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Digital beat me to the answer......Black & White is much more detailed orientated. Crisper, clearer and has some perspective ( Depth of field)
2007-03-01 13:40:16 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Maybe you should subscribe using your visa card and pay them money so that you can get the color pictures, only free pictures are black and white.
2007-03-01 14:06:33 · answer #6 · answered by Ramy Yassin 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
BETTER RESOLUTION COLOR DOESNT ENHANCE WELLENOUGH TO HAVE SHARP DETAIL Jupiter would look like a big red tennis ball its moon would be a colored orb
2007-03-01 13:40:29 · answer #7 · answered by havenjohnny 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋