Will it be really dark on pluto and Sedna?

[remcot]

Can i expect bright or just dim Sunlight there? And what kind of experience will it be when you land and walk on Sedna when it is at its (maximum) distance (930) AU from the Sun? What kind of darkness or brightness can i expect of the Sun then? Can you try to answer and explain that? Thank you. remcot

 

[yevaud]

It would be quite dark (although both objects mentioned have a high albedo), as the Sun at that distance is a point of light, nothing more. A bit more prominent than other stars, but not that much. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[tfwthom]

Solar System Simulator <br /><br />Judge for yourself <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1" color="#3366ff">www.siriuslookers.org</font> </div>

 

[qso1]

It would be dark with a sky filled with stars, the brightest of which would be the sun. And with no thick gaseous atmosphere to diffuse light, not to mention so little light to diffuse, it would essentially be like being in space. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[remcot]

How dim or bright will the landscape of Sedna be illuminated when the Sun is shining there as bright as a full Moon? (magnitude -12,70) Like here on Earth when it is full Moon on a clear sky? Do you need extra lights when you land on Sedna then?

 

[willpittenger]

The simulator would reproduce field of view and how much of the sky an object takes up. However, please do not expect it to show what Pluto or Charon (or Sedna if it is listed) actually look like. It uses artist renderings of what they might look like. Furthermore, please remember that it is not ray-traced and will not reproduce the lighting actually present.<br /><br />Finally, if you use it, be sure to set the field of view to something other than what I remember being the default. (That causes the object you are looking at, say the Sun from Pluto, to fill your field of view. So everything appears to have plenty of resolution.) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[tfwthom]

What images they have they use. <br /><br />Disclaimer: though many of these textures have been stitched together directly from multispectral images taken by NASA spacecraft, they should not be used for scientific analysis. Many of these images have blank spots where no images have been taken; some have also been enhanced and slightly altered for aesthetic appeal. For some bodies, no global maps are available at this site yet; some we just haven't explored enough to get any reasonably high resolution images (like Pluto). Maps of the gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus) and Titan are merely meant to be representative; atmospheric dynamics will change the body's appearance daily.<br /><br />So it's fair to say that it is what you would see from them. The Voyagers looked back on the solar system as they left and still are:<br /><br />NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft are beaming back new information about the final frontier of our solar system, including evidence of "potholes" in the turbulent zone near the edge. New findings are being presented this week at the American Geophysical Union conference in Baltimore. (May 23) <br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1" color="#3366ff">www.siriuslookers.org</font> </div>

 

[tony873004]

Brighness diminishes as an inverse square of distance. So on Pluto, while at 40AU, it will be 1/40[sup]2[/sup] or 1/1600 as bright as it is on Earth. On Sedna at perihelion, it would be 1/76^2 or 1/5800 as bright as on Earth.<br /><br />This might not seem like much. But consider that your living room at night, under artificial light is about 1/1600. So on Pluto, you'd easily be able to read a book. You could read a book on Sedna too at perihelion. It would be about as bright as your living room with the dimmer switch set to mood lighting. When at aphelion, Sedna would receive 1/975^2, or about 1/1 million of the sunlight Earth receives. This would make it about as bright as Earth at night with a gibbous moon in the sky, still enough to read by.<br /><br />Your eyes do a remarkable job of compensating for dim light. Your pupils dialate, and your eye's sensitivity to light is not linear, but logarithmic. That's why at only 1/1600 the brightness of full sunshine, your living room, under artifical lights, is comfortably bright.<br /><br />On Pluto and Sedna at perilelion, the Sun would be MUCH brighter than the other stars in the sky. You could even damage your eyes by looking at it.

 

[tropicalzone]

about the same as 100 times full moon