Posted on 02/07/2018 4:01:07 PM PST by BenLurkin
Even Elon Musk thinks his space-cruising midnight-cherry Tesla Roadster looks weird.
"It looks so ridiculous and impossible," the SpaceX CEO told reporters after the Falcon Heavy megarocket launched the car into space yesterday (Feb. 6). "You can tell it's real because it looks so fake, honestly."
...
Think of it this way: Light can travel through different mediums including air, water and the vacuum of space each of which has a different refractive index, he said. That is, these mediums bend light differently, which explains why colored light doesn't look the same in one medium as it does in another.
Furthermore, when light travels through the Earth's atmosphere, it passes through air that contains particles, such as dust, soot, smoke and liquid droplets. The air also has varying densities depending on how much water it contains and its temperature, Sachleben said. For instance, the air at the top of Mount Everest is less dense than at sea level, which is why breathing at Everest's peak is challenging.
These factors air's particles and properties can change the way colors look on Earth, Sachleben told Live Science.
"The light scatters off of those particles," he said. "When it hits a piece of dust, it bounces off of it. And then it hits another one, and it scatters off of that one." That's why "the image we see [on Earth] is fuzzier, less distinct," he said. "In space, you don't have that."
In space, there's barely anything to bend or block light. That's why pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope are so much sharper than images taken from Earth-based telescopes, Sachleben said.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
I don’t think it looks fake, just bizarre like Nancy Pelosis face.
I would like to see Space X fined for littering.
Or Bondo just looks fake everywhere
Musk as usual making up terminology when he doesn’t understand something. Takes half an idea from computer graphics lingo and tries to apply it to physical science effects
A glitter Disco ball was put up a while back...That was littering:
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42808180
And much more.
It takes a long time to plot a position for a new satellite because of the amount of space junk currently in orbit.
Why would anyone ask a Chemist a question about optics?
Maybe that’s who invited them to lunch.
The guy just launched a rocket, and landed the 2 boosters back on a pad in a jaw dropping display.... and you’re going to criticize him for this?
This would be a better stellar sight than a Tesla.
Someone who couldn’t find a physicist or optical engineer but really didn’t want to make the effort to get a correct answer
I doubt the Tesla’s a fake but that guy’s explanation is ridiculous.
The distance between the camera and the Tesla is so small that an earthly atmosphere if it were present would have virtually undetectable effect on the image at the camera.
There is no bending due to a refractive index effect.
Dust particles between two objects only several feet apart is negligible except under very dusty or foggy conditions.
About the one third point if you look closely you can see the cameraman in the reflection off the helmet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.