Re:Hubble captures the sharpest ever view of Andromeda Galaxy
by gambiting on Tuesday January 06, 2015 @06:43AM
(#8843888)
It was explained quite well recently - Hubble can't look at the Moon(or the Earth for that matter) because it's moving way too fast relative to either of these two bodies to take a non-blurry picture.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Hubble captures the sharpest ever view of Andromeda Galaxy
by BrandonMarc on Friday January 09, 2015 @06:24PM
(#8865131)
Randall Munroe took the question as part of his What If series.
Earth - Hubble is moving too fast to get decent close-up imagery, the distance is too small, and frankly Hubble just wasn't designed for it (as opposed to spy satellites of the major powers). Hubble does use the earth to calibrate its cameras, though.
Randall gives examples of how imagery might turn out.
Moon - speed's an issue, but less so, especially if you're imaging a large region
Here's an example: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2012/22/
Mars - Hubble has targeted this planet lots of times.
Some examples: http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/solar_system/mars/