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I wonder if software can be put to it in order to plot every single star. I wonder if there were a way to eventually get a stereo image — depth data for each p
by JKCalhoun 2y ago
I wonder if software can be put to it in order to plot every single star.
I wonder if there were a way to eventually get a stereo image — depth data for each point of light so that we can map Andromeda in three dimensions.
- somenameforme 2y agoDistance in space is difficult because a dim star could just be a smaller dim star that's close, or a larger bright star that's far away. We have to use a lot of clever tricks (standard candles paired with parallax calculations [1] in particular) just to get distances estimates. We can kind of do this for stars that are very close (relatively speaking), but at the scale of the universe - even measuring the distance to a distant galaxy has a substantial uncertainty factor, let alone the stars within that galaxy! [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_distance_ladder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_distance_ladder
- JKCalhoun 2y agoNo way to use the change in relative distance between the stars of Andromeda itself?
- Vampiero 2y agoI guess we would need two telescopes very far apart in order to get stereo images? Wouldn't any two points converge at the horizon, considering the distances involved, otherwise?
- JKCalhoun 2y agoAndromeda is a whole other beast, but I understand we've done something similar for bodies in our Milky Way using two ends of Earth's trip around the sun.
- dylan604 2y agoOr use the same telescope by taking images 6 months apart so the earth is in opposite position in its orbit
- sapiogram 2y agoYeah, Andromeda is way too far away. The Gaia mission was custom-built to do exactly this kind of "stereo" imaging of stars in our own galaxy, but it's still not sensitive enough to cover the entire Milky Way.