Timeline for Could we use telescopes and mirrors in space to see crime in the past via analog?
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6 events
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| Sep 5, 2018 at 20:03 | comment | added | Snyder005 | But it's easier to hand-wave the problem of mirror alignment than the problem of determining the light-path of photons from the black hole disk. By the same principal, light from all the nearby stars/galaxies will also be visible, and will be intermixed with light from Earth. The optical effects of the accretion disk would also make focusing, let alone resolving the Earth much more difficult than the mirror. | |
| Sep 5, 2018 at 19:55 | comment | added | Draconis | @Snyder005 Basically because with a black hole you don't need to worry about the angle: if you choose the right spot to look at, you can see light that's approaching the black hole from any direction whatsoever. Whereas with a mirror that far away, the slightest error in angle would make the light miss Earth entirely. (A retroreflector avoids that problem, but a retroreflector also doesn't get you a nice clear image like OP wants.) | |
| Sep 5, 2018 at 19:49 | comment | added | Snyder005 | Downvoted because the same problems that would cause a mirror to be dismissed as impossible are still present when using a black hole to "return" the light to Earth. You are effectively replacing the mirror with a black hole and introducing even more problems. In fact it's extremely more plausible to use a giant mirror than to use a black hole, so I don't see why you dismissed the mirror as impossible. | |
| Sep 5, 2018 at 12:36 | comment | added | The Square-Cube Law | Problem is, that light gets mixed up with light from other sources. You won't get any pictire out of it. | |
| Sep 5, 2018 at 4:46 | history | edited | Draconis | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Sep 5, 2018 at 4:36 | history | answered | Draconis | CC BY-SA 4.0 |