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Kerrie
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When astronauts travel to outer space, the moon, etc, can their eyes still perceive color?
chroot said:Light only changes direction when it goes from one medium to another (this is Snell's Law). Light does not bend within our atmosphere, but it does bend when moving from vacuum to air, or from air to vacuum.
- Warren
chroot said:Of course, Snell's law predicts there will be no change in direction at all when the light hits the interface perpendicularly.
When you observe an object near the zenith (the point directly overhead) there is no bending of the light involved.
When you observe an object near the horizon, the light is most certainly bent in going from vacuum to air. The amount of refraction is actually dependent on wavelength. Red light is refracted more than blue light. A simple telescope will show this effect on any bright object illuminated by sunlight, like the Moon or Venus.
- Warren
No, it only depends on the direction you look in the sky.kleinma said:im probably wrong, but wouldn't this light bending not depend so much on where I am physically looking in the sky (directly up, or at the horizon) but where I physically am on the Earth (NY versus one of the poles).
Actually, neither the color or apparent size changes have anything to do with refraction.I guess it does make sense though since the sun or moon looks huge and color distorted when it is near the horizon versus when it is high in the sky
There are several reasons for the colour charts, calibration of cameras is certainly important.tony873004 said:They put those color charts on spacecraft so they can color calibrate the camera in its new surroundings. I'm guessing that that's because colors look slightly different in Mars' atmosphere than in Earth's atmosphere.
Scuba divers sometimes take flashlights on dives in bright daylight, not to brighten what they're looking at, but to restore the color. Water robs light of its color, the deeper you go.
So maybe a lot of moisture in the atmosphere makes a difference too.
chroot said:Light only changes direction when it goes from one medium to another (this is Snell's Law). Light does not bend within our atmosphere, but it does bend when moving from vacuum to air, or from air to vacuum.
- Warren
Well, that's true -- I was thinking "through the atmosphere" meant "parallel to the ground." It doesn't necessarily mean that, though, you're right.Gonzolo said:Actually, since the atmosphere has many overlapping layers of varying composition, its index of refraction should be a continuous function of altitude - a graded index of refraction. So strictly speeking light should slightly bend throughout the atmosphere. Whether it is ever useful to take this into account, I am not sure.
Gonzolo said:Actually, since the atmosphere has many overlapping layers of varying composition, its index of refraction should be a continuous function of altitude - a graded index of refraction. So strictly speeking light should slightly bend throughout the atmosphere. Whether it is ever useful to take this into account, I am not sure.
The perception of color in space is caused by the interaction between light and the human eye. Objects in space reflect or emit light at different wavelengths, and these wavelengths are then detected by photoreceptor cells in the eye. These cells then send signals to the brain, which interprets the different wavelengths as different colors.
Yes, colors can be perceived differently in space compared to on Earth. The lack of atmosphere in space means that there is no diffused light, resulting in more intense and saturated colors. Additionally, the absence of a blue sky in space can also affect the perceived colors of objects.
Astronauts perceive color in space in a similar way to how they perceive it on Earth. However, the lack of gravity can affect the way colors are seen. Without gravity, fluids in the body shift, causing the shape of the eyeball to change and potentially affecting color perception.
No, humans cannot see all colors in space. The human eye is sensitive to a limited range of wavelengths, known as the visible spectrum, which includes red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Colors outside of this range, such as infrared and ultraviolet, cannot be seen by the naked eye.
The perception of color in space can affect space exploration in various ways. For example, it can impact the accuracy of images taken by space telescopes and the interpretation of data collected by scientific instruments. It can also play a role in the design and development of spacecraft and spacesuits, as colors may appear differently in space compared to on Earth.