With the super clear cameras today, why are the photos from space vehicles so bad?

faisal khan

I honestly can’t figure out what you are talking about.

Here is a picture of Europa taken by Voyager 2 almost 40 years ago. Quora can’t even show it in full detail.

In comparison, this is a Galileo picture of Europa from 25 years ago.

More recently New Horizons took this picture of Charon, the sister world of Pluto.

Keep in mind that the Sun’s light is so dim at Charon, it’s like taking a picture of the Earth with barely more than moonlight. (That is a little hyperbole. It’s more like a floodlit building at night. See the comment below.)

Maybe you are confused because pictures of gas giants do not look as detailed?

That’s a case of the picture is sharp, but Jupiter isn’t so sharp and contrasty, because, well, it is a nebulous gas that you are looking at.

Maybe it is Hubble pictures that you feel are not sharp.

Well, again, you are looking at a nebula.

Could you give an example of pictures from space vehicles that you do not think are clear?

Maybe you don’t like the Hubble Deep Field photos?

Keep in mind you are looking at a tiny patch of sky that has been magnified considerably. Also remember that before Edwin Hubble discovered that Andromeda was actually a galaxy, they were called “nebulae” because they appeared fuzzy.

Or maybe you thought this picture of the Earth taken from the International Space Station is not clear enough.

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