Questions tagged [space-telescope]
Questions regarding telescopes in orbit around Earth, such as the Hubble Space Telescope.
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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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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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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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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 ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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James Webb detection capabilities
This question has (in a sense) been asked before, but not adequately answered, so let me put it a different way.
How far away could James Webb be from Earth and still detect biosignatues in its ...
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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 ...
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How could a 20 inch space telescope “be able to make out Earth-size planets” orbiting alpha Centari?
The NY Times article Telescope to Seek Earthlike Planet in Alpha Centauri System describes a proposed effort to put a telescope into orbit fairly quickly with a narrowly defined purpose - to look for ...
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How would a small TCO (temporarily captured orbiter) or other natural Earth satellite most likely be detected?
A sentence from the abstract of The population of natural Earth satellites states:
At any given time there should be at least one NES of 1-meter diameter orbiting the Earth. The average temporarily-...
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What does “forward facing” mean for space telescopes?
I just noticed this announcement from the K2 mission that the field observed for Campaign 16 of the K2 mission would be changed so that the telescope would be "forward facing", saying that "observing ...
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Giant variation of the proposed eLISA mission using reflectors on Earth and the Moon possible?
I was thinking about the proposed ESA mission eLISA, which is essentially a space version of the LIGO experiment, and it occurred to me that trailing three satellites behind the Earth's orbit seemed ...
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Would space-based telescopes need to remain in the shadow of Earth to avoid light interference from the sun?
So I am thinking about orbiting telescopes tonight and I was thinking that it would probably be beneficial to keep them in the shadow of the Earth or some other space body to avoid light interference.
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Could the Earth be used to cast an arago/poisson spot on something
There's a potential design for a space-based telescope that uses a large opaque circular disk in place of a transparent lens to focus light for analysis. It uses the light that bends around the disk ...
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Why does a mirror bent 'like a potato chip' allow space telescopes to be smaller and have a wider field of view?
I was browsing NASA featured items and came across this - Out With the Old, In With the New: Telescope Mirrors Get New Shape
Called freeform optics, this emerging mirror technology, brought about
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Theoretically, what is the biggest optical telescope that may exist?
Recently, I read yet another news about E-ELT. It will have 39.3-metre-diameter segmented primary mirror. And I was interested in the next question:
Theoretically, what size of the primary mirror (...
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What is the cost and benefit of building two identical telescopes?
I suppose that (especially space) telescope costs is dominated by design and development, not by material and manufacturing. So once a telescope has been developed and designed, how much extra would ...
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What visual artifacts are expected from the JWST?
What visual artifacts should we expect from the images that will be released from the James Webb Space Telescope? Specifically, do we expect 3-pronged diffraction spikes (any preview how they would ...
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What measure should I use to help optimise the design of a telescope in a cubesat?
I have started a project in Melbourne, Australia called nanosat eye in the sky to put a telescope in a cubesat and put it in LEO. The idea is then to add the telescope to itelescope.
I need to learn ...
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Could spy satellites use laser guide stars (for adaptive optics)?
Are sodium lasers useful for Earth observing space telescopes/spy satellites?
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How to calculate the limiting magnitude of Hubble?
I've found various sources on the web stating that the limiting apparent magnitude of the Hubble Space Telescope is about 31 or 31.5. Wikipedia lists that here and it has a cite to a pdf about it.
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Are space telescopes completely out of the earth's atmosphere?
Is the Hubble Space Telescope, and every other space telescope for that matter, completely outside the Earths atmosphere?
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How is the cost of JWST distributed on different parts of development and operations?
The James Webb Space Telescope costs nearly 9 billion dollar. What parts of this project cost how much?
I suppose that almost every component has to be developed and is not available to buy off the ...
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Can ground based telescopes use a starshade in space?
1) Could a starshade in orbit be used by ground based telescopes? If so, what kind of orbit should it have?
2) Could the same starshade be used by two different space telescopes, or does the ...
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Is there a cosmic, rather than technological, upper limit to what a telescope can resolve?
Space radio interferometers could have a baseline of millions of kilometers, but is there a point where a larger baseline doesn't improve the resolution anymore because the photons observed are ...
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Method to determine the amount of reflected starlight necessary for an exoplanet to be visible from a given distance/angle? [closed]
What is the method to determine the amount of reflected starlight necessary for an exoplanet to be visible from a given distance/angle? (Not from occlusion but actually visible on its own.) Further, ...
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As of now did a radio telescope ever recorded something else than the silence of space? [closed]
When a radio telescope listen to the Universe; a constant sound is recorded. Is it the noise "of the mic" : interferences? Scientists says that when they will notice variations on this basic constant ...
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Could a space radio telescope fill multiple purposes?
Dream for a while and imagine that there will be a flagship+ mission within a decade to put a large radio telescope in space:
What kind of different tasks could the same radio equipment feasibly be ...
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Can the Gaia telescope detect small temporarily captured asteroids near its Lagrange orbit?
The Gaia space telescope is in a Lissajous orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2. The orbit period is about 180 days and the size of the orbit is 263,000 x 707,000 x 370,000 km. It has been ...
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Telescope in Sun's gravity lens focus - pointing, gain, distortions
A telescope located in the gravitational focus of the Sun can use the Sun as a magnifying lens. The focus begins 550 AU away, but maybe a 700 or 1000 AU distance is needed to get rid of disturbances ...
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What are the differences between TESS and PLATO exoplanet telescopes?
Within a year now it has been decided to launch TESS in 2017 and PLATO in 2024, space telecopes of NASA and ESA. They seem to have very similar science goals, both searching for transiting Earth sized ...
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What are the next planned space telescopes?
We've had hubble for two decades. Its become the most famous space telescope, and lately Kepler seems to be running for the second place. Are there any more powerful, better telescopes planned for ...
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Parking a telescope at a Lagrange point: is this a good idea from a debris point of view?
The James Webb space telescope is supposed to be located at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point.
Do we expect the region around that point to have a higher concentration of space debris, asteroids, dust,...
