Slashdot Mirror
Russian Satellite Takes Most Detailed 121-Megapixel Image of Earth Yet
Diggester writes "The satellite, known as Elektro-L No.1, took an image from its stationary point over 35,000 kilometers above the Indian Ocean. This is the most detailed image of the Earth yet available, capturing the Earth in a single shot with 121-megapixels. NASA satellites use a collection of pictures from multiple flybys stitched together. The detail in the pic is just amazing."
NASA satellites use a collection of pictures from multiple flybys stitched together.
The [Russian] satellite [...] took an image [...] capturing the Earth in a single shot with 121-megapixels.
The detail is fascinating but visually it looks terrible because it includes the infrared spectrum. It looks like a dead rock with sick black oceans. Awful.
Also, there seems to be a lot of chromatic distortion on the image. Check out the clouds - there are three separate registrations for each color in the cloud image. Were their optics not calibrated, or did they take each color picture separately?
Thats only a square 11000 pixels on a side. A 300 dpi laserprinter would make a roughly one yard/one meter printout.
At a slightly higher resolution that would be a metric A0 paper size. printers that big do exist but are kinda expensive. Best upload it to your local printer/office store and let them print it instead of do it yourself.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Both versions are stitched together. The Russian version stitches 121 million images with less temporal resolution.