Timeline for Why do dark objects look white from a distance? (Moon, Ceres, but not Earth!)
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 26, 2015 at 3:43 | answer | added | Keith Thompson | timeline score: 5 | |
| May 26, 2015 at 0:36 | comment | added | zibadawa timmy | It turns out that a lot of cameras used in space photography are black and white cameras. They're way cheaper, more reliable, and the further out you go from the sun the less light there is to collect anyway, so you're not going to pick up much in the way of color to begin with. Plus, most of the scientifically interesting wavelengths are not visible to the human eye. Color photos of Ceres, in particular, are quite new. | |
| May 25, 2015 at 18:07 | answer | added | ProfRob | timeline score: 5 | |
| May 25, 2015 at 15:11 | answer | added | Rohit Nutalapati | timeline score: 0 | |
| Mar 20, 2015 at 22:35 | comment | added | pela | Sorry, I don't really know anything about this, so I can't really contribute. I just thought of of this backscattering phenomenon. But you must be right wrt. the atmosphere not having an effect. | |
| Mar 20, 2015 at 18:15 | comment | added | LocalFluff | @pela On images from Mars orbit, sand dunes made up of fine tiny particles look dark. As I understand it, because they are tiny, not because they are intrinsically dark individual by individual. And the dark Moon looking white at a distance cannot be an atmospheric phenomenon since images from the Dawn spacecraft approaching Ceres shows the same effect. | |
| Mar 17, 2015 at 15:33 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackAstronomy/status/577855190713442304 | ||
| Mar 17, 2015 at 14:06 | comment | added | pela | One cause is that Lunar dust has a tendency to reflect light back in the direction of the light source. That means that when the Moon is roughly full, we see it as brighter than we would if it scattered light isotropically, since in that case we have the Sun in our back. This doesn't explain <half Moons, though. | |
| Mar 17, 2015 at 13:46 | comment | added | Wayfaring Stranger | W respect to Earth appearing dark, liquid water has a very low albedo: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo Still, I think you'd notice the oceans against a black sky, if it weren't for those glaring white clouds. | |
| Mar 17, 2015 at 12:27 | comment | added | LocalFluff | @Py-ser I've added an example image. You know how the Moon looks from Earth. | |
| Mar 17, 2015 at 12:26 | history | edited | LocalFluff | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 256 characters in body
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| Mar 17, 2015 at 9:28 | comment | added | Py-ser | Can you link such an image where the Earth does NOT shine as seen from the Moon? Just as a clue, why does the Moon is not always as bright as the full Moon? | |
| Mar 17, 2015 at 8:54 | history | asked | LocalFluff | CC BY-SA 3.0 |