I quite liked the picture of the space shuttle on yesterday's Astronomy Picture of the Day APOD, and I was very intrigued by the bright spots on the closeup of photo.
The photo was probably taken digitally, so most of the spots should be caused by cosmic rays? But what I'd like to know is how come some have lines that run down the whole picture? What could have caused that effect on a ccd chip? And why do they only run downwards?
Anyone has an explanation?
Cosmic rays on photo?
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tanguan2001
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Each line starts from a bright pixel, so my guess is a form of blooming where electrons from an oversaturated pixel overflows to the next one in the same column. Could also be a result of how the CCD is read - the charge from each pixel is shifted all the down a column and it then read when it gets to the last row. If this charge leaks along the way, this would be the result.
What a nice picture - I can see the gap filler protruding!
TG
What a nice picture - I can see the gap filler protruding!
TG