I'll never forget the moment Carl Sagan described the number of stars as being greater than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of Earth. This video provides an equivalent perspective on the number of asteroids in the asteroid belt. The successive zoom-outs are impressive, but especially the final image showing how little of the belt was sampled for the data.
And it's amazing to me that the space the asteroid belt covers is so large and spread out that we don't need to worry about them when sending spacecraft to the outer planets.
ReplyDeleteThe Vera Rubin started a few days ago and already identified thousands and unknown asteroids. This telescope is beyond amazing.
ReplyDeletehttps://rubinobservatory.org/
I learned about it here -
Deletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/science/vera-rubin-telescopes-first-images.html
- and started exploring the observatory''s website this morning. Mind-boggling images. Will blog more in the future.
Is the Rubin taking better photos than the JWST?
ReplyDeleteI think the JWST images in infrared, and the Rubin presumably in visible light. "Better" might depend on the purpose.
DeleteVera Rubin telescope goes from 320-1050nm. That's near-UV to near-IR. Visible light is 400-700nm.
DeleteThe JWST is 600-28,500nm, or red to mid-infrared.
Note that the Rubin telescope is on earth and needs to look through the atmosphere and ignore all the (spaceX) satellites. JWST hangs in space and does not.
Thank you, Nepkarel. Glad to see data.
DeleteYes - thanks, Nepkarel.
DeleteSome of the videos the VCR folks have posted are time lapses, showing asteroids moving, etc. It will be really cool when they capture an asteroid crashing into a star, or into another asteroid, or swallowed by a black hole.