Black & White or color: The Cosmos and Human Sight
Last night I read an article in the April edition of Discover Magazine (sorry, can’t link to it – they still have the March issue up as current) that said that due to the physiology of the eye, humans cannot see color in dim light.
Which made me wonder: What does Space look like to astronauts?
Do they see white dots salted across the blackness of space, or do they discern any color to it at all?
If the latter, I’d be bummed. Considering how wide the spectrum of light is, and our limits to a small sliver of that spectrum, I’d say we got a raw deal.
Anyone know? Just wondering…
M 2-9, credit
Are we blind to the beauty of this nebula?
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Chad:
Hmmm… think about the people who claim the moon landing is a hoax. They say that because the pictures taken don’t have any stars in the sky.
That’s because the relative brightness of what’s around vs. the apeture of the cameras. Eye’s work about the same way, so I think that if there is anything bright (like the moon, Earth, sun) anywhere in the picture, you’d wash it all out.
But if you were in deep space, with no local light source, and close enough to something, I think you’d be able to see some color. Most people can see Betelguese as reddish, etc.
So, that leads to the most interesting question. Why in every single scifi show, when the put on the space helmet, they turn on the light inside the helmet? Isn’t that a: useless, and b: a major source of glare? I’m hoping its just so you can see who is in the spacesuit…
14 March 2006, 7:39 pm