Question

Astronomy - 4th post

Answer 1

Pluto is right now 32.91 au (149 597 871 kilometers X 32.91) away from the sun. The amount/intensity of sunlight reaching the surface of Pluto is 1083 times less compared to that reaches the Earth (as per Inverse Square Law).
In response to a question from a student I confirmed that the Sun appears just as a bright star (with apparent angular diameter of only 58 arc seconds i.e less than 32 times in size as the Sun appears in the skies of the Earth). How this small intensity of sunlight can brighten up the surface of Pluto as much as it appears in the Pictures shown on websites? Anyone expert in image processing may come up with a suitable answer???
Beside nothing can be shown "live" from Pluto!!! Light takes 4 hours 33.5 seconds to reach us. So everything that is received from Pluto is 4 hours 33 minutes old.
Last query was that sending control signals from here to Pluto and receiving signals from Pluto there are so many sources of "noise" then how come so sharp pictures are obtained? I have no answer to this question. Any person expert in telecommunication may come up with an answer??????
These are just simple thought provoking questions!!!!

Answer 2

Hey I think you should just compose all of your posts rather than making separate ones every time, also physics would probably be a better section for this as we don't have a astronomy/ general science section.

Answer 3

Astrophysics questions go in either physics or Earth Science because the physics side os obviously physics but the astronomy side is earth science.

Answer 4

Oh right, forgot about Earth science haha.

Answer 5

Can we get an Astronomy Section? Also can you answer my question @Astrophysics

Answer 6

I will get back to you later, as I don't have much time to explain at this moment, but it's nice to see people thinking about astronomy! :)

Answer 7

hba, why are you posting these questions here? You are a old timer and you know better. What is not working for you, my friend?

Answer 8

@Preetha There is no Astronomy Section Preetha , All the question which do not have a section go into the OpenStudy Feedback area.. I'll start posting the Astronomy question in the Physics portion from now on :)

Answer 9

Earth Science is better. "Earth Science is the study of the Earth and its neighbors in space." from http://geology.com/articles/what-is-earth-science.shtml It covers Astronomy. It is a nice, broad category. =)