4 ms·
From /r/space: Image of the occultation profile vs actual shape: https://i.imgur.com/PNh4nmX.png https://i.imgur.com/PNh4nmX.png Each line is the same star vi
by tomerico 8y ago
From /r/space:
Image of the occultation profile vs actual shape:
https://i.imgur.com/PNh4nmX.png https://i.imgur.com/PNh4nmX.png
Each line is the same star viewed from a different point on Earth. They arranged for telescopes in a long line North to South to all observe UT at the same time, just as it was predicted to pass in front of the star. Then they precisely timed the apparent blinks of the star. The North-South offset meant the star bisected UT across different sections for each telescope.
Then they just worked out the parallax difference and mapped out the blink times on a chart to see the silhouette.
- 6nf 8y agoFrom that pic it looks like they were able to measure accurately to within meters of the actual shape at this distance! That is incredible
- jcims 8y agoThose streaks in that pic are the path of a star that UT passed. Given they know the velocity, if they time the period where the light from the star is occluded, they get a measure of how wide the object is at that elevation. This is what an occultation looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y_qc8Ifhso https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y_qc8Ifhso Crazy they are able to map a few of those together so precisely to get this data.