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What kind of telescope would be necessary to actually view the details of a distant planet? An incredibly large one. I don't have time to figure it out right n
by hugh 18y ago
What kind of telescope would be necessary to actually view the details of a distant planet?
An incredibly large one. I don't have time to figure it out right now, but if anyone feels motivated then what you need to be looking at is the diffraction limit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction_limit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction_limit
That's the fundamental limit on how small a feature you can pick up using a telescope of a given size.
- lutorm 18y agoYeah, if you mean "detail on the planet" and not just resolve the planet from its star, then it's completely infeasible. The current 30m-class telescopes that are under development (ie www.tmt.org) in combination with high-contrast adaptive optics will make it possible to see earth-size planets, if I'm not mistaken, but not to resolve detail on their surface.