- #1
big man
- 254
- 1
Hey guys,
I've got a query. When one of Jupiter's satellites reappears from its shadow wouldn't the satellite light up linearly? I mean if you assume it is circular wouldn't the amount it's lit depend on the area of a sector of a circle?
And that would mean that since the area of a circle depends on the central angle it is a linear relationship.
The thing confusing me is that someone said it wasn't a linear relationship.
Why would that be? Is there something I'm not considering here?
This is something I observed a couple of nights ago and I thought I'd check the lightcurve using some freeware. The lightcurve doesn't show a linear relationship, but I don't think I can rely on that 'cause I think the lightcurve is a bit dodgy due to the proximity of Io and Jupiter.
I've got a query. When one of Jupiter's satellites reappears from its shadow wouldn't the satellite light up linearly? I mean if you assume it is circular wouldn't the amount it's lit depend on the area of a sector of a circle?
And that would mean that since the area of a circle depends on the central angle it is a linear relationship.
The thing confusing me is that someone said it wasn't a linear relationship.
Why would that be? Is there something I'm not considering here?
This is something I observed a couple of nights ago and I thought I'd check the lightcurve using some freeware. The lightcurve doesn't show a linear relationship, but I don't think I can rely on that 'cause I think the lightcurve is a bit dodgy due to the proximity of Io and Jupiter.