Satellites circling earth
from Papanca@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca on 10 Apr 08:07
https://lemmy.world/post/45416553

With all these pics from the Artemis, including ones from the earth; why don’t we see any satellites and other stuff that circles the earth? Are they too small to see at these distances? Still, i would expect some of them to at least glint in the sunlight.

Update; thanks for confirming it’s indeed that they are too small to see. Also, i didn’t think of the pixels, good point.

#nostupidquestions

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TheLunatickle@lemmy.zip on 10 Apr 08:15 next collapse

They are way to small, space is BIG.

667@lemmy.radio on 10 Apr 08:34 collapse

Mind-boggling, one has said.

Klear@quokk.au on 10 Apr 08:49 collapse

I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.

rumschlumpel@feddit.org on 10 Apr 08:15 next collapse

The biggest satellite is like what, 30 metres across with solar panels?* Earth’s diameter is ~13 000 km, that’s 400 000 times larger. A satellite might as well be a grain of sand.

* Biggest unmanned artificial satellite that I could find info on is the Hubble telescope, which is 13m long; its solar panels are not longer than the telescope tube.

Bougie_Birdie@piefed.blahaj.zone on 10 Apr 10:31 next collapse

If you get some place you can see the starry sky, sometimes you can pick out satellites. It might look like a small bright star moving across the sky in a straight line.

Sometimes they’re just aircraft. I’m not really up on my astronomy, so I’m sure some of them could be other celestial bodies. But I’m pretty sure a satellite appears to move faster than a planet and slower than a shooting star

Papanca@lemmy.world on 10 Apr 18:23 collapse

Yes, i see them frequently. Planes often have blinking lights and fly lower. And shooting stars are already gone in the blink of an eye. Also, i have an app -Stellarium - that, if in doubt, shows whether they’re satellites.

guy@piefed.social on 10 Apr 11:25 next collapse

Because space is huge and satellites are tiny. It’s like why you can’t see a football on the ground from a commercial airliner

Quilotoa@lemmy.ca on 10 Apr 11:56 next collapse

They’re tiny relative to space. They don’t produce any light so on non-backlit shots, you wouldn’t see them unless the sun reflected off a surface the right way.

lost_faith@lemmy.ca on 10 Apr 12:04 next collapse

This guy explains it perfectly Dave McKeegan

lurch@sh.itjust.works on 10 Apr 12:05 collapse

the pics don’t have enough pixels to see them at this distance. they are small fractions of the pixels.