Re: [APML] Science in Astrophotos

[steve banbury <banburys@sonic.net>]

I believe the scientific benefit from planetary probe photos is independent
of their color.

Unless a physical significance is associated with the "pretty" color
pictures e.g.: plots of magnetic field strength and polarity, or emission
spectra,
the color itself is devoid of any meaning.

Any "science" could have been obtained equally well from a grey scale image
where the spectral responsivity of the detection medium is known.

Steve

At 03:18 PM 2/13/02 -0700, you wrote:
>On Wed, 13 Feb 2002, Chuck Vaughn wrote:
>
>> Frank,
>>
>> > science is done to improve and fit a theory. magnitude of stars can be
used to
>> > determine stellar lifetimes and hence stellar evoution. the exact
color of an
>> > object does nothing except create a pretty picture on a computer.
nice, might
>> > be art, but not science.
>>
>> So would you and Torsten also say that color images assembled from data
>> returned from various planetary spacecraft are just pretty pictures and no
>> science can had from them?
>>
>
>Not a fair comparison- planetary probe photos are useful because they get
>close enough to their targets that details not even resolvable from Earth
>can be seen easily. Plus other measurements (magnetic field, etc) can be
>made that can't be done remotely.
>
>Torsten
>
>
>
>
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