Timeline for Worthwhile to put a telescope on the far side of the Sun?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
16 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 22 at 16:53 | comment | added | RonJohn | The real question is "Is it worth the big chunk of the limited amount of money that we spend on space exploration?" | |
| Apr 22 at 13:01 | comment | added | jcaron | Note that if my math is correct, the Sun masks about 1/230 000 of the celestial sphere (about 0.0004%), so you would need to be pretty unlucky for an interesting event to happen right behind the Sun and last less than half a day (as about 12 hours later what was behind the Sun becomes visible). Of course the influence of the Sun on what you may see "close to behind it" may exceed beyond just the size of the Sun itself, but it's still a small and time-limited "hole" in what we can see. Still, curious as we are, the L4/L5 options are much easier than L3. | |
| Apr 22 at 5:31 | comment | added | KDP | If its something kicked out the asteroid belt and is on a collision course with the sun and it takes six months to arrive, we will be in the line of fire when by the time it arrives. Unlikely, but possible. On the other hand, 'it' might be something that doesn't want us to see it coming ;-) | |
| Apr 22 at 4:56 | comment | added | Flater | " It would cover our blind spot for incoming meteors" I don't quality to even be an amateur astronomer but my gut is telling me that if something remains out of sight, hiding behind the sun for a significant portion of its travel time, that it's very unlikely for it to be on a collision course with the Earth. | |
| Apr 21 at 20:30 | comment | added | Simon Crase | So we'd know if the other side of the Sun shines?;-) | |
| Apr 21 at 19:01 | answer | added | A. I. Breveleri | timeline score: 7 | |
| Apr 21 at 11:49 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Apr 21 at 11:00 | vote | accept | KDP | ||
| Apr 21 at 9:58 | answer | added | PM 2Ring | timeline score: 21 | |
| Apr 21 at 7:18 | comment | added | KDP | You might as well put your comments in a formal answer. They seem resonable and informative. | |
| Apr 21 at 7:12 | comment | added | KDP | Maybe L4 and L5 might be more practical as I think they are more stable and possibly provide nearly as much coverage of the far side? | |
| Apr 21 at 6:59 | comment | added | KDP | Well, they haven't read my post yet, lol :-) Maybe the Chinese or the Russian's might be interested in having information that no else has access to as well as claiming bragging rights, like China attempting to be the first to land a probe on the dark side of the moon ;-) | |
| Apr 21 at 6:27 | comment | added | PM 2Ring | NASA is so uninterested in L3 that it's not even in Horizons ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/… | |
| Apr 21 at 6:16 | comment | added | PM 2Ring | Related question on our sister site: space.stackexchange.com/q/8513/38535 & links therein | |
| Apr 21 at 3:55 | history | edited | KDP | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 174 characters in body
|
| Apr 21 at 3:49 | history | asked | KDP | CC BY-SA 4.0 |