That could be a satellite image - they can resolve details to about one metre
So the Rabbit should be distinguishable from space.
I remember a school exercise where we had to work out the resolving power you could get with an optical lens that was the biggest it could possibly be and still fit inside the diameter of a rocket - it was about half a metre I think. Some physics experts can give the exact numbers.
Basically, it's physically impossible to optically resolve anything smaller than around 0.5 metres in size, so spy satellites can never read car plates or make out faces no matter what. Sadly mere laws of nature don't sway conspiracy theorists.
(, Sat 15 Oct 2011, 17:51, Reply)
Not entirely true
The maximum resolving power of a single device is around half a metre as you say, but using synthetic aperture interferometry you can achieve a resolving power far greater than your individual sensors.
This is exactly the principle employed by the Very Large Array telescope linked above.
(
wheresthefish Partly filled with wrong, Sat 15 Oct 2011, 18:22,
Reply)
That's right
But I am compelled by the gods of pedantry to add that the VLA is using radio waves and is not an optical lens. While Synthetic Aperture arrays using optical telescopes have been created on the ground, popping one in space and getting useful data from it is still in the realms of sci-fi.
(Or at least that's what they want us to think! WAKE UP SHEEPLE!)
(, Sat 15 Oct 2011, 18:38, Reply)
Is it?
Personally, I'd be surprised if there weren't at least an experimental one up there right now.
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wheresthefish Partly filled with wrong, Sat 15 Oct 2011, 19:33,
Reply)