Why can't we get pictures of other solar sysems in the Milky Way?

Question

Hubble and Chandra get pictures of deep space, other galaxies. Why can't we get pics of closer objects like other planets? Someone once said it would be like taking a picture inside your house, you wouldn't be able to see much, just one side of one room. But with our advanced technology, looks like we could get close up pics of other planets. We are closer to them than galaxies in deep space. Why not?

Answer 1

Although their distance and size certainly limits how easily we can photograph planets in other solar systems, the MAIN reason is that the brightness of whatever star the solar system orbits around totally wipes out the faint glimmers of light from planets. If you place a 40 watt lightbulb close to a 100 watt bulb and then try to pick out the 40 watt bulb from a distance of 1/2 mile you're not going to be able to do so.

However, in 1999 a research team reported photographing an extrasolar planet orbiting around a star known as Tau Bootis. (..http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/reflected_light_991215.html..) There are also a number of spacecraft to be launched that hopefully will be able to photograph distant solar systems. The Kepler Mission is one and should be launched this year sometime.

Answer 2

... OK! sandy...
The Maestro is kind of right... but it is a little more complex; still, the main reason is that the "halo" (intensity) of the star ur looking at is bigger than the intensity (which is very low) reflected by the planet... but there is a trick! if u blind out the star, it is more easier to see the reflection of a planet, so it is possible to take pictures of a planet, OK, maybe not of the whole solar system but if the planet is bigger enough and near to the star u could take a picture of it.
but i think (i´m not sure) that the Hubble has this technology...

the 3 answers above are good answers, that's the thing i was trying to say with complex! ;)

Answer 3

It the physics of optics.

A telescope is limited in its resolving power by diffraction. Diffraction is inevitable at any aperture, and causes points to be spread out into a set of rings called an Airy Disc. The size of the disc depends on the wavelength of the light and the size of the aperture. Once the discs of nearby objects are big enough to overlap then you cannot tell the objects apart.

So a telescope has to be huge to have a huge resolving power. To give you an idea, if you wanted to be able to see the flag left on the moon by the astronauts you would need a telescope on Earth with a lens 80 metres across. The largest telescope on Earth is about 12 metres across.

So basically all a telescope see of distant stars is a point of light. Galaxies are made of lots of stars so can be see as a fuzz of points.

Answer 4

We're dealing with the limitations of optic and photo sensors. First of all, to get a really good view of a small thing, you need a huge telescope. It's something called diffraction limited viewing and you can do a search on it if you like that pulls us back. Secondly, stars are so much brighter than the light that the planets around them reflect that it's hard to detect. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

When we take pics of other galaxies, they are giving out their own light. Planets do not, they only reflect (and usually very poorly). So planets are far too dark to see with the Hubble.

Answer 6

we are closer to these other solar systems, but keep in mind the sizes we are dealing with. these galaxies are enormous compared to the solar systems, and even though they are farther away, they still appear bigger.

look at a person who is standing a ways away from a large tree. then have the person go much closer to the tree. all the sudden the person seems much smaller than the tree. in this case, the other galaxies are tree, and the other person is the solar systems

Answer 7

I will answer you with this:

take a detailed picture of a mountain at 20km, it's very easy.

take detailed picture of a man at 200m with the same camera, it's nearly impossible to see details.

Galaxies are HUGE if you confront them with standard size solar systems. so it's easy to take a picture of a galaxy 100000000 light years away, but we need the most powerful telescopes to just detect a planet around a star 20 light years from us.

Answer 8

Because planets do not reflect nearly as much light and are so much smaller than the stars they revolve around. Most planets in near orbit of their stars are obscured by the light from that star.

Answer 9

Just a guess....but because planets don't give off light, trying to find one to photograph would be difficult.

Answer 10

We don't know what is out there. It might be very dangerous. First, we are probaby going to make a space camera and try and get some pictures of it first.