mars rover 360 degree panoramic view

• Osayidan wrote on 2012-08-26 02:37
  I wonder if it's clear enough to see stars that small. I know it can see the earth and other planets as bright dots but there might be too much dust in the air to see anything too far out of our solar system. Maybe only some of the brightest stars.
  Come to think of it I've never noticed stars in the sky on mars/moon photos (with the exception of our sun).
• Froglord wrote on 2012-08-30 14:48

  Quote from Osayidan;941657:

  I wonder if it's clear enough to see stars that small. I know it can see the earth and other planets as bright dots but there might be too much dust in the air to see anything too far out of our solar system. Maybe only some of the brightest stars.
  Come to think of it I've never noticed stars in the sky on mars/moon photos (with the exception of our sun).

  
  
  There is next to no water in the atmosphere on mars, it contains as wiki says: 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and contains traces of oxygen, water, and methane,
  
  Without any water to reflect light, and a huge looming worldwide cloud of CO^2 and a small atmosphere, you'd be lucky to see any stars at all.
• Osayidan wrote on 2012-08-30 16:43

  Quote from Froglord;944209:

  There is next to no water in the atmosphere on mars, it contains as wiki says: 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and contains traces of oxygen, water, and methane,
  
  Without any water to reflect light, and a huge looming worldwide cloud of CO^2 and a small atmosphere, you'd be lucky to see any stars at all.

  
  
  Way to ruin Kueh's dreams :(
• whocares8128 wrote on 2012-08-30 18:40

  Quote from Osayidan;944250:

  Way to ruin Kueh's dreams :(

  
  
  Huh?
  You don't need water or an atmosphere to detect light from stars.
  
  The main reason you don't see any stars is probably because all the pictures (that I've seen anyway) were taken during the day. Since the moon really doesn't have an atmosphere at all, it's possible to see stars during the "day" (with the naked eye), but photographing them is another matter. The brightness of the stars doesn't compare at all to the moon's (and earth's) lit surface(s). From the dark side of the moon I'm sure stars could be photographed (using long exposure times), but then... the constellations wouldn't really look different at all either, so why bother?
  
  The nearest star to Earth (Proxima Centauri, part of Centaurus) is still ~150,000 times further away than Mars. To put that into perspective, imagine looking at something over 80 miles away. Now imagine taking one step (~3ft) to the side and looking at it again. Of course, most stars are much, much further away.
  
  So yeah... maybe that destroys Kueh's dreams too, or maybe it's a challenge to dream bigger! (Curiosity isn't the only thing that has been taking pictures for NASA.)
  
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]Overexposure is the key to picking up faint points of light.
  
  Here is an image of Neptune's rings, taken from here.
  

  [Image: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/images/neptune/10bg.jpg]

  [/SPOILER]