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Why is image so grainy? In this day and age, we should have better images, even from 5.4 million kilometers away.

by mudil 11y ago

BinaryIdiot 11y ago
It's imaging hardware likely from 2001 or older. Remember this space craft has been in flight for almost 10 years, in development for several years before that and the imaging hardware needs to be well tested and hardened for space flight.
- tizzdogg 11y ago
  Even if it was today's hardware, we'd still be getting grainy images from this distance. It might be slightly better, but not the amazing hi-res images people on this thread seem to be expecting. Pluto is really small and far away. It's just a tiny spot even to Hubble. Well get the hi-res images once new horizons actually does its flyby and once the data is downloaded.
  - DanBC 11y ago
    There's one person in this thread who is disappointed. Everyone else seems to recognise this as the amazing thing it is. Perhaps we just need some kind of infographic? If the camera is a single pixel, how many pixels away is Pluto? What's the equivalent using (as one person suggested) a iPhone camera?
    - magicalist 11y ago
      LORRI, the camera taking these photographs has a resolution of 4.9 µradians per pixel. From what I can put together, the iPhone 6 has a horizontal resolution of about 340 µradians per pixel. So a 70-pixel-across image of pluto from LORRI (about what we have here[1] taken about two days ago) would appear to be a single pixel on an iPhone 6. It's possible that single pixel wouldn't show up at all since it's pretty dim all the way out there, but Apple has been working hard on their low-light image capture :) And that's of course not accounting for radiation protection, a very carefully designed CCD and mounting so you can actually do science with the results, calibration after riding up on a rocket, sensitivity across 350nm to 850nm, etc. [1] http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounter/view_obs.php?image=data/pluto/level2/lor/jpeg/029878/lor_0298787344_0x630_sci_1.jpg&utc_time=2015-07-09%3Cbr%3E22:37:05%20UTC&description=OpNav+Campaign+4%2C+LORRI+1X1&target=CHARON&range=5.4M%20km&exposure=100%20msec http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounter/view_obs.php?ima... (actually closer to 75-80 pixels across)
Dylan16807 11y ago
It's grainy because it's a few pixels across. It's a few pixels across because it's not a telescope, it's a probe. It's not about "this day and age", it's about designing something that can do a lot of science when it's close, instead of something that can do a fraction as much from farther away. Even the best camera in the world would give you results that are pretty much the same. If you want to ignore distance, then you should probably look at the entire frame of the camera. I'm sure it can take some wonderful snapshots of the stars that aren't grainy at all. But if you zoom via cropping, your image quality goes away. That's not a failure of design in any way.

Why is image so grainy? In this day and age, we should have better images, even from 5.4 million kilometers away.

by mudil 11y ago

Why is image so grainy? In this day and age, we should have better images, even from 5.4 million kilometers away.

It's imaging hardware likely from 2001 or older. Remember this space craft has been in flight for almost 10 years, in development for several years before that and the imaging hardware needs to be well tested and hardened for space flight.

tizzdogg 11y ago
Even if it was today's hardware, we'd still be getting grainy images from this distance. It might be slightly better, but not the amazing hi-res images people on this thread seem to be expecting. Pluto is really small and far away. It's just a tiny spot even to Hubble. Well get the hi-res images once new horizons actually does its flyby and once the data is downloaded.
- DanBC 11y ago
  There's one person in this thread who is disappointed. Everyone else seems to recognise this as the amazing thing it is. Perhaps we just need some kind of infographic? If the camera is a single pixel, how many pixels away is Pluto? What's the equivalent using (as one person suggested) a iPhone camera?
  - magicalist 11y ago
    LORRI, the camera taking these photographs has a resolution of 4.9 µradians per pixel. From what I can put together, the iPhone 6 has a horizontal resolution of about 340 µradians per pixel. So a 70-pixel-across image of pluto from LORRI (about what we have here[1] taken about two days ago) would appear to be a single pixel on an iPhone 6. It's possible that single pixel wouldn't show up at all since it's pretty dim all the way out there, but Apple has been working hard on their low-light image capture :) And that's of course not accounting for radiation protection, a very carefully designed CCD and mounting so you can actually do science with the results, calibration after riding up on a rocket, sensitivity across 350nm to 850nm, etc. [1] http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounter/view_obs.php?image=data/pluto/level2/lor/jpeg/029878/lor_0298787344_0x630_sci_1.jpg&utc_time=2015-07-09%3Cbr%3E22:37:05%20UTC&description=OpNav+Campaign+4%2C+LORRI+1X1&target=CHARON&range=5.4M%20km&exposure=100%20msec http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounter/view_obs.php?ima... (actually closer to 75-80 pixels across)

Dylan16807 11y ago

It's grainy because it's a few pixels across. It's a few pixels across because it's not a telescope, it's a probe. It's not about "this day and age", it's about designing something that can do a lot of science when it's close, instead of something that can do a fraction as much from farther away. Even the best camera in the world would give you results that are pretty much the same. If you want to ignore distance, then you should probably look at the entire frame of the camera. I'm sure it can take some wonderful snapshots of the stars that aren't grainy at all. But if you zoom via cropping, your image quality goes away. That's not a failure of design in any way.