Tuesday 10 July 2012

naked eye - Seconds of Arc and the Unaided Eye

I've been presented with this problem:




Say that Jupiter, with its diameter of 142,000 km, was located where Mars now orbits. What would be the angular size of (the newly-relocated) Jupiter during a close approach, when its distance would be 79,300,000 km? Would we be able to see Jupiter as a round object with our unaided eye, or only as a point of light?




The angular size is easy enough to calculate given $ frac{Angular space Size}{206,000} = frac{Linear space Size}{Distance} $.
So $frac{Angular space Size}{206,000} = frac{142000}{79300000}$ meaning Angular Size = 369 seconds of arc.



However, would the unaided eye be able to see this? Knowing that the eye can detect 1 minute of arc across, surely it can detect 6.15? Any help appreciated, thanks!

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