Questions tagged [space-telescope]
Questions regarding telescopes in orbit around Earth, such as the Hubble Space Telescope.
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Deciding optical factors between a refractive and reflective space telescope optics as a function of aperture? (visible light)
Reading Yale News' Lighting a path to Planet Nine:
To detect objects that are otherwise undetectable, Rice and Laughlin employ a method called “shifting and stacking.” They “shift” images from a ...
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Expanding our observable universe suggestion
Firstly, regarding the observable universe there is a certain radius of a circle, and we cannot see further than that. It is understandable, that due to photons travelling at a certain speed we can ...
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1answer
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Is there an IRAM satellite that measures thermal radiation at 250 GHz, or was this a ground-based instrument?
The Nature Research Letter A Pluto-like radius and a high albedo for the dwarf planet Eris from an occultation (also here and here) says about half-way through:
We now reassess Eris’ surface ...
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What's still needed before we can observe orbits of exomoons thereby weighing exoplanets?
Comments below this answer to How do we weigh a planet? point out that we currently cannot (or at least have not) detect moons around exoplanets, much less measure the sizes and periods of their ...
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Understanding WISE acronyms
I've enoucntered many acronyms related between them, like AllWISE, WISE, NEOWISE, CatWISE, WISEA, WISEAR, WISEAF, WISEU, WISEP, WISEPA, WISEPC, WISEF, WISEPF, WISER, WISEWF, WISET, WISETF, WISENF... ...
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Would They Tell Us If An Unstoppable Threat Was Approaching [closed]
This recent piece somewhat kindled my thoughts on this question, but I've pondered it for a while now: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-movie-of-the-evolving-universe-is-potentially-scary/
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How does NASA's ASTHROS stratospheric telescope compare to its James Webb space telescope?
In Space SE I've asked Would it have been cheaper and faster to put a James Webb-like Space Telescope on a balloon instead of a rocket?
I linked there to a few news items:
CNET: NASA to send stadium-...
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1answer
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Why didn't we see those campfires on the Sun until now?
What is it about its optics and instrumentation (aperture, sensors, filters), being in space and distance from the Sun on 30 May 2020 that allowed Solar Orbiter's HRIEUV telescope to see something ...
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Does time flow in a Minkowski spacetime?
In a spacetime where the stress-energy tensor is null (no energy, no matter, no entropy), I wonder whether any motion of the variable time in the phase-space is well defined.
The arrow of time, meant ...
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Does anyone know about the ring diagram technique and Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager pipeline?
I'm working on the ring diagram technique and pipeline for the Solar Dynamics Observatory's Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager or HMI, but I didn't find much about the details about how it works or how ...
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Why is the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (WFIRST) coronagraph considered “beyond-state-of-the-art”?
After about 01:30 in the NASA video NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: Broadening Our Cosmic Horizons the narrator says:
To deepen its study of exoplanets ...
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Frames per second capabilities cameras currently installed in Modern Telescopes?
What are the present real-time capabilities of various modern telescopes as video cameras? How do these compare with the capabilities various of space telescopes?
For example, if it was known that ...
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3answers
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Why are telescopes positioned in Lagrange points?
In this Wikipedia article about the list of space telescopes to be launched (which I assume is exhaustive), of the 11 telescopes yet to be launched, 6 will be positioned at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange ...
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1answer
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Any active solar X-ray imager in orbit?
NOAA GOES-14 & 15 went very recently in storage mode. With those also went the solar X-ray imagers (SXI), as GOES-16 & 17 do not have such instruments on board. Hence, my question:
Are there ...
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1answer
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Why is LUVOIR actively heated?
From the Wikipedia page about LUVOIR design:
To enable the extreme wavefront stability needed for coronagraphic observations of Earth-like exoplanets, the LUVOIR design incorporates three ...
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1answer
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Does this CHEOPS first light image imply bad astronomy?
@KeithMcClary's comment under lousy mirror corrected by software links to Bad Astronomy's First Light for the Exoplanet Hunter Mission CHEOPS Goes Tetrahedral which shows the image below.
I understand ...
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Is it plausible to use other stars for the proposed FOCAL mission instead of the Sun?
For some time, the far-reaching and speculative idea of using the Sun as a gravitational lens has been floating around. See this and this. This would require sending a spacecraft about ~550 AU of a ...
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Can the WISE telescope detect black holes?
Black holes are hot, aren't they? With its infrared scan, could the WISE telescope also detect a black hole? The hypothetical planet beyond the Kuiper belt could actually be a primordial black hole. ...
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How was astronomical data meant to be handled on HST precursors?
The first drafts for a large space telescope such as Hubble were made in the 60's, and the idea of a space observatory originated long before that. From Wikipedia:
In 1968, NASA developed firm ...
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1answer
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Will James Webb see Population III stars?
I have heard that James Webb will see the first stars that our universe produced. Can I assume that we may see galaxies that are so young that all of the stars in them are population III?
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What alternative facilities would be available in the event of JWST being destroyed?
Unfortunately, space launches can and do go wrong. Suppose that after all the delays and budget overruns, the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope fails and the telescope becomes a cloud of very ...
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What is an “Off Rowland-circle Telescope”?
The NASA Goddard news item NASA to Demonstrate New Star-Watching Technology with Thousands of Tiny Shutters says:
The technology, called the Next-Generation Microshutter Array (NGMSA), will fly for ...
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1answer
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How will microshutter arrays be used in the James Webb and future space telescopes?
Question: How will microshutter arrays be used in the James Webb and future space telescopes? Are they acting as a sort of moving pinhole or slit, or is the pattern more complicated, like a coded ...
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What is the gravitational lensing focal distance of a white dwarf star?
I tried looking this up, but I couldn't find any formula on gravitational lensing distance. I know that our Sun's is about 550 AU, though further distances work too, as it's not a single focus due ...
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1answer
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Why would a tidally-locked rocky planet have a first-order spherical harmonic surface temperature distribution?
The new Letter to Nature Absence of a thick atmosphere on the terrestrial exoplanet LHS 3844b (also ArXiv) analyzes the thermal infrared light curve from the system (about 4.5 to 5.5 um). The planet ...
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Any plans for TESS after it finishes northern sky survey?
TESS has provided the astronomy community with a treasure trove of information.
Once TESS completes its one year survey of the northern sky, are there any plans for an extended mission?
Just seems ...
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1answer
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Comparing info for WISE and GALEX
I'm trying to compile a table showing the wavelengths and flux at m=0 for WISE, Spitzer and GALEX, but I can't find the right data for GALEX. Here's what I have so far:
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Why look at an infrared telescopes's mirror with ultraviolet light? (Herschel Space Observatory)
While link-clicking for Where did Herschel Space Telescope go in 2013? I ran across the 2009 Time Magazine article Two Telescopes to Measure the Big Bang which shows the file photo below with the ...
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1answer
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How are space telescopes stabilised to a perfect standstill?
I assume that for space telescopes to get good images, they must be put in perfect standstill, as even the slightest deviation in the viewing angle is amplified by the distance of observed objects, ...
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2answers
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What would be the obstacles to building a 6.5km space telescope besides cost?
In the comments of another question on this Stack Exchange site, I talk with another user about the possibility of building an optical space telescope with a 6.5 km aperture.
Obviously, this is much ...
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1answer
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Pictures of galaxies, nebulae: which way is up?
We are used to viewing pictures of the Earth and the planets with their North Pole pointing towards the upper portion of the photo. But when a space telescope snaps photos of cosmic entities, do they ...
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What's fixed in Ariel that is moving in other planet-hunting space telescopes?
The BBC News article UK will lead European exoplanet mission says:
Steady platform
And one aspect that would work in Ariel's favour is the absence of any moving parts in its build, commented Plato ...
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Where exactly is the modification that first corrected the spherical aberration in Hubble's primary mirror?
The April 2015 CBS News article How NASA fixed Hubble's flawed vision - and reputation describes the modification taken to the Hubble Space Telescopes by the Space Shuttle that was used to correct for ...
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4answers
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Why are we building larger land-based telescopes instead of launching larger ones into space?
This question is a follow-up to Do bigger telescopes equal better results?
How much bigger does a ground-based mirror have to be to match what a space-based one can do? I guess I'm asking primarily ...
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Is it practical to build a giant telescope in Moon? (Considering the fact that the atmosphere of moon is very rare)
China's FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope) is the largest radio telescope in the world.(This is huge!!!)
As we all know Space Telescopes are better than Earth-Based ...
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Where can I find source data for the graph of metric expansion over time, as shown in this ESA web page?
This web page from ESA/Hubble, shows the size of the universe over time. (I know that "size of the universe" is a gross simplification and open to multiple definitions and ambiguity, but this kind of ...
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About bigger resolution of telescopes [closed]
Any idea about the design of new better telescope having small length of diameter and having more resolving power.
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Which space telescope is the most distant?
From the earth, and from the sun. Only interested in active, operational ones.
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How might WFIRST help us better understand dark energy?
In the video linked in the Space.com article What Would It Mean for Astronomers If the WFIRST Space Telescope Is Killed?, (available in YouTube as WFIRST: The Best of Both Worlds) after ...
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1answer
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Maximum distance for earth eclipse
First of all sorry if this question was already asked, but I made a small search here and on google and I couldn't find any answer, so.. Here I am.
I was reading NASA's webpage about the Webb ...
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Is the James Webb telescope going to orbit around the earth?
If it’s going to orbit around the earth, what kind of orbit would it be (what distance)?
Are there benefits to sending a telescope further away from the earth if it’s just to photograph galaxies and ...
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1answer
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Why is NEOWISE used for galactic observation?
I've been studying images from the WISE and NEOWISE missions. WISE used infrared cameras to survey the entire sky. When its primary mission ended in 2010, it was repurposed to look for Near-Earth ...
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Why not use only one support vane for the secondary mirror, to avoid multiple diffraction spikes?
Each vane holding the secondary mirror in front of the primary causes a diffraction spike. Couldn't the secondary mirror be held with only one vane?
If stability is the issue, couldn't it be ...
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1answer
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How should I find a telescope for research time?
I'm an undergrad in physics and astronomy deciding to look into applying for time on a research telescope, and I'm not sure how to proceed with locating/finding telescopes that I can apply for time on....
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What type of camera instruments are used to record optical images in space telescopes like HUBBLE & JWST.?
I am just curious about photos taken by space telescopes
What kind of type of camera systems are used in space telescopes like HUBBLE and JWST?
Are those cameras systems specially built for that ...
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1answer
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What are IRAS sources?
Do IRAS sources refer to star forming regions? I searched google and I came to know that it stands for IR astronomical satellite.But what do they search for? Please help me
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Will the JWST be affected by dust at L2 (gegenschein?)
Gegenschein is a "faint brightening of the night sky" at the anti-solar point. A naked eye limiting magnitude of about 7.6 might enable an observer to make out gegenschein.
The Wikipedia article on ...
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Transit Depth Color Versus Transmission Spectroscopy
One of the tools being developed for the study of exoplanets is called transmission spectroscopy - basically looking at how passing through the exoplanet's atmosphere changes the spectrum of the star. ...
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Where can I find raw text, ascii, or binary data from the GALEX satellite?
I am looking for stars in the GALEX data through the GALEX data using GALEXview and plugging in their Henry Draper Numbers
http://galex.stsci.edu/galexview/
But the task is tedious by hand. Is there ...
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Questions about convolving/deconvolving with a PSF
A point spread function (PSF) has many different uses. Consider for instance the following quote:
To extract the maximum information out of an observation, even the smallest details of the ...
