Monday, February 22, 2010

Why in space u cannot see stars whereas from earth is so clear?

when i watch news about space exploration, when they show the footage of space, i cannot see any stars. Why is this? from earth its so clear???Why in space u cannot see stars whereas from earth is so clear?
This is an illusion. The aperture used on cameras in space is so small as not to allow enough light in to be able to see the stars. Try using a video camera to video the night sky on earth, you will find that you won't see the stars then either.





Don't worry, the stars don't disappear when you get to space.Why in space u cannot see stars whereas from earth is so clear?
The stars are even clearer when viewed from space. The images you are seeing are taken with a film or video camera, bit of which can only show a limited range of brighnesses.





If the camera has been set to show the earth, the moon, or a brightly lit spacecraft clearly then the stars may still be too dim to show up on the film, even in space.





If, on the other hand, you set the camera up to take picture of stars and point the camer in the right direction, you can get some beautiful images.
You can see stars very clearly in space. They were used in the Apollo missions for navigational purposes, to determine the orientation of the vehicle. As someone else correctly pointed out, the camera has to be stopped down so much, because of the light from the sun, that the stars become too dim to be registered. That's the same reason you don't see the stars in the photos taken on the moon.
The simplest answer is that if you are in orbit and happen to be able to see the sun, you are in the daylight or the day-side of the Earth. In the same way you cannot see stars from Earth during the day, you cannot see stars from orbit during the ';day'; either. Wait until you orbit around to the night side of Earth and it will be a whole different story (assuming your spacecraft/suit doesn't have too many bright lights to drown out the stars!)
If you're in low orbit, and on the daytime side, then the light being reflected from the earth is bright - and would obscure your view of the stars in the same way as light pollution on earth hinders astronomers.
This is all due to light settings and film exposure. The main image you will be looking at in these pictures is so brightly lit and over-exposed that it ';drowns out'; the light coming from the stars.





To see how well you can actually see stars from space, just look at the results from the Hubble Space Telescope. (See link)
I reckon it's because stars are balls of gas. I mean think about it, if you are close to a ball of gas it wouldn't be visible.
because it's being filmed in a hollywood studio

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