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Can someone explain to me how we're only discovering these moons in 2023? Do we really not have sensitive enough instruments to see rocks over a mile in diamete
by eslaught 3y ago
Can someone explain to me how we're only discovering these moons in 2023? Do we really not have sensitive enough instruments to see rocks over a mile in diameter in our own solar system?
- hackernewds 3y agoNo.
- zeroonetwothree 3y agoIt’s equivalent to seeing an object one micron in size at a distance of a mile. Or like seeing something one nanometer in size at a distance of 1 meter (for example that’s about the size of a water molecule). And it’s constantly moving.
- ragebol 3y ago> And it’s constantly moving Against a background with other stuff, that might be brighter, also moving etc etc.
- gorgoiler 3y agoA lot of these search problems are easier to wrap ones head around with the keys analogy: finding a moon around Saturn, or finding a lost ship on the ocean* is like losing your car keys in a field then trying to find them with a pair of binoculars. If you do actually know where they are then you can easily see them with the binoculars but if you need to perform a search it is laborious because of the relative scales. * https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Arctic_Sea https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Arctic_Sea