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> At its closest approaches JunoCam could achieve 15 km/pixel resolution from 4300 km In comparison, the highest resolution photos of Pluto from New Horizons a

> At its closest approaches JunoCam could achieve 15 km/pixel resolution from 4300 km In comparison, the highest resolution photos of Pluto from New Horizons achieved 80 meters per pixel from a closest approach of 12500 km. Its amazing how good the camera was on New Horizons. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-plutos-surface https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-p...

jessriedel 10y ago
No doubt New Horizon's camera was phenomenal for the mission, but I'm actually not sure how good it was compared to something you could do with a terrestrial lens. (There are lots of compromises when you go to space.) Juno's camera is very modest by design: It's a wide-field of view and only a few megapixels, so basically a cell-phone camera.
- jonknee 10y ago
  > It's a wide-field of view and only a few megapixels, so basically a cell-phone camera. It's not similar to a cell phone camera at all. Cell phone cameras are usually much higher resolution (current iPhone is 8 megapixels vs the 2 for Juno), but with a much smaller sensor (iPhone cam has a 1.5µm pixel size vs 7.4µm for Juno).
  - valarauca1 10y ago
    Also light thresholds need to be taken into consideration. Jupiter is 5x[1] further from the Sun then Earth, so there is much less light to capture in an image. [1] On average.
    - jonknee 10y ago
      Yup, that's what those big pixels are good for.
  - jessriedel 10y ago
    Um, so the best cell phone camera on the market is within a factor of 2 in linear resolution? I think that qualifies as "basically".
    - pwthornton 10y ago
      It's the opposite of cellphone camera. It has low megapixels and a large sensor size. This will allow a lot of light onto the sensor and it won't suffer from the noisiness that high megapixels on a smaller sensor suffer from.
      - jessriedel 10y ago
        The point is that, on the spectrum of all imaging devices you might put on a satellite, both Juno and a cell phone camera are in the same rough neighborhood. They are dwarfed by telephoto lens, or 200 megapixel sensors. Remember especially that the topic we are discussing is the resolution (km/pixel) at a particular distance (see above), and for this the lens are much more important than the particular CCD chosen.
        jonknee 10y ago
        So now it's the lens that you don't like, not the sensor? The imaging camera has a wide angle (11.7mm) because it's going to be so close to the surface that a wide angle is optimal. That's actually a lot wider than cell phones (iPhone 6s is 31mm equivalent). There are also other instruments on board that look through the gas with telescopic reach. td;dr Juno has a fine sensor and lens
    - jonknee 10y ago
      Resolution has very little to do with it. Many images from NASA are stitched, even the ones from New Horizons. The important part is light sensitivity (in the correct wavelengths!) and making sure that it can work in the radiation of Jupiter. You can go buy a camera with the same sensor if you'd like, but they're expensive: http://www.qsimaging.com/620-overview.html http://www.qsimaging.com/620-overview.html I believe it's the same sensor that flew on the Curiosity mission and we all know those photos are fantastic. They are also flight tested, invaluable for missions like this where you only get one shot at it.

jessriedel 10y ago

No doubt New Horizon's camera was phenomenal for the mission, but I'm actually not sure how good it was compared to something you could do with a terrestrial lens. (There are lots of compromises when you go to space.) Juno's camera is very modest by design: It's a wide-field of view and only a few megapixels, so basically a cell-phone camera.

jonknee 10y ago
> It's a wide-field of view and only a few megapixels, so basically a cell-phone camera. It's not similar to a cell phone camera at all. Cell phone cameras are usually much higher resolution (current iPhone is 8 megapixels vs the 2 for Juno), but with a much smaller sensor (iPhone cam has a 1.5µm pixel size vs 7.4µm for Juno).
- valarauca1 10y ago
  Also light thresholds need to be taken into consideration. Jupiter is 5x[1] further from the Sun then Earth, so there is much less light to capture in an image. [1] On average.
  - jonknee 10y ago
    Yup, that's what those big pixels are good for.
- jessriedel 10y ago
  Um, so the best cell phone camera on the market is within a factor of 2 in linear resolution? I think that qualifies as "basically".
  - pwthornton 10y ago
    It's the opposite of cellphone camera. It has low megapixels and a large sensor size. This will allow a lot of light onto the sensor and it won't suffer from the noisiness that high megapixels on a smaller sensor suffer from.
    - jessriedel 10y ago
      The point is that, on the spectrum of all imaging devices you might put on a satellite, both Juno and a cell phone camera are in the same rough neighborhood. They are dwarfed by telephoto lens, or 200 megapixel sensors. Remember especially that the topic we are discussing is the resolution (km/pixel) at a particular distance (see above), and for this the lens are much more important than the particular CCD chosen.
      - jonknee 10y ago
        So now it's the lens that you don't like, not the sensor? The imaging camera has a wide angle (11.7mm) because it's going to be so close to the surface that a wide angle is optimal. That's actually a lot wider than cell phones (iPhone 6s is 31mm equivalent). There are also other instruments on board that look through the gas with telescopic reach. td;dr Juno has a fine sensor and lens
  - jonknee 10y ago
    Resolution has very little to do with it. Many images from NASA are stitched, even the ones from New Horizons. The important part is light sensitivity (in the correct wavelengths!) and making sure that it can work in the radiation of Jupiter. You can go buy a camera with the same sensor if you'd like, but they're expensive: http://www.qsimaging.com/620-overview.html http://www.qsimaging.com/620-overview.html I believe it's the same sensor that flew on the Curiosity mission and we all know those photos are fantastic. They are also flight tested, invaluable for missions like this where you only get one shot at it.