Could an earth based telescope see satellites positioned around Mars?
rataru101 asked:
I know the Hubble telescope can produce microscopic pictures of Mars, but what about a telescope on earth? I don’t mean a $100 walmart telescope either, but the million dollar NASA ones.
If so, please try to provide the closest pictures you can find that used and state they used an Earth based telescope.
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I know the Hubble telescope can produce microscopic pictures of Mars, but what about a telescope on earth? I don’t mean a $100 walmart telescope either, but the million dollar NASA ones.
If so, please try to provide the closest pictures you can find that used and state they used an Earth based telescope.
P.S. I say they can, and a friend says no way. I don’t much mind either way but I’m rather curious now…
March 30th, 2009 at 8:00 am
No. the satellites are just too small compared to the planet!
March 31st, 2009 at 7:46 am
You can see satellites around Mars–Phobos and Diemos are their names. They were discovered with a 26 inch refractor by Asaph Hall in 1877. If you know where to look, you can see them in mid-sized telescopes (10-14 inches).
Hubble can’t take “microscopic pictures of Mars” and NASA doesn’t have big telescopes on earth, especially not million dollar ones.
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:19 am
No. The artificial satellites currently in orbit around Mars are too small and faint to be detected by Earth-bound telescopes, including the Hubble. Even the two natural satellites of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, are difficult objects requiring at least 12″ aperture, and they’re 12 and 22 km in diameter, more than a thousand times bigger than the artificial satellites.