Space, which mankind has wondered about for hundreds or even thousands of years, is finally being explored, albeit slowly, with space telescopes. started. Thanks to space telescopes like Hubble and James Webb, planets are thousands or even hundreds of thousands of light years away. we can photograph.

But somehow these space telescopes can’t see the surfaces of planets. How can these technological devices that take pictures of galaxies perform such a ‘simple’ task? cannot fulfill? Let’s take a closer look at how telescopes work and why this isn’t possible.

First let’s understand the working logic of telescopes

To understand the answer to this question, we must first understand how telescopes work. As many people know, telescopes detect light in the direction it is pointed. using lenses It gives us an image by focusing. With space telescopes, however, the situation is somewhat different. Space telescopes, on the other hand, use a few huge lenses and dozens of mirrors. collects the maximum amount of light.

Space telescopes have parts called mirrors. These parts collect the rays from the celestial bodies and send them to the lenses in the telescope that detect different types of light. Infra-red These lenses, which separate the lights such as ultraviolet and ultraviolet, capture the rays from dozens of mirrors and send them to the experts on our planet. Later experts, images of by combining creates the amazing space photos we see.

Why can’t we photograph the surfaces of planets when photographing galaxies?

Space telescopes, equipped with lenses and mirrors at the height of technology, can provide images of galaxies thousands of light-years away from our planet. This is because galaxies very, very big. To give an example, the Milky Way galaxy, in which we are also located, is actually so large that it is directly above the sun, with a radius of 696,340 km. 890 billion times bigger.

When this is the case, it is much easier for telescopes to pick up the light from giant galaxies. Space telescopes, tuned to collect a certain amount of light, reveal planets that resemble grains of dust compared to galaxies. has trouble catching ‘faded’ lights. Of course, there are also clouds of dust and gas that cover the atmospheres of some planets. must not forget. If this is the case, these telescopes that photograph giant galaxies cannot help us observe planets.

So how do they photograph galaxies thousands of light-years away?

Because galaxies are huge, they can emit a lot of light. The rays they emit are so strong that space telescopes even thousands of light years away can detect. But of course, the fact that we’re photographing that galaxy now doesn’t mean it exists now. If you photograph a celestial body at a distance of 1 million light-years, it is: You took a picture of yourself 1 million years ago. resources. So basically none of the galaxies currently being photographed by the James Webb Space Telescope. may not exist.

Scientists are constantly working to produce more advanced telescope lenses and mirrors. Who knows, in the future we may be able to photograph the planets of those distant galaxies.