The Naked Scientists
Toggle navigation
Login
Register
Podcasts
The Naked Scientists
eLife
Naked Genetics
Naked Astronomy
In short
Naked Neuroscience
Ask! The Naked Scientists
Question of the Week
Archive
Video
SUBSCRIBE to our Podcasts
Articles
Science News
Features
Interviews
Answers to Science Questions
Get Naked
Donate
Do an Experiment
Science Forum
Ask a Question
About
Meet the team
Our Sponsors
Site Map
Contact us
User menu
Login
Register
Search
Home
Help
Search
Tags
Recent Topics
Login
Register
Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences
Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology
Will we be able to see exoplanets in same clarity as the JWST's Neptune?
« previous
next »
Print
Pages: [
1
]
Go Down
Will we be able to see exoplanets in same clarity as the JWST's Neptune?
2 Replies
1762 Views
0 Tags
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Pseudoscience-is-malarkey
(OP)
Hero Member
939
Activity:
1%
Thanked: 32 times
Will we be able to see exoplanets in same clarity as the JWST's Neptune?
«
on:
23/09/2022 15:06:27 »
The fact that we cannot get very clear images via telescope of planets in our own solar system makes me feel that such a feat won't be accomplished until all of us on this forum have gone to our graves.
Logged
Origin
Naked Science Forum King!
2248
Activity:
0%
Thanked: 210 times
Nothing of importance
Re: Will we be able to see exoplanets in same clarity as the JWST's Neptune?
«
Reply #1 on:
23/09/2022 15:19:00 »
No.
Logged
evan_au
Global Moderator
Naked Science Forum GOD!
11033
Activity:
8%
Thanked: 1486 times
Re: Will we be able to see exoplanets in same clarity as the JWST's Neptune?
«
Reply #2 on:
24/09/2022 00:38:50 »
The image resolution you can achieve depends on the wavelength you use, and the size of your telescope.
- For a planet far from the star, you would need to rely on infra-red radiation which has a long wavelength
- For a distant object, it subtends a small angle, so you need a very large telescope
- To image an exoplanet, you need a telescope thousands of kilometers across
See equations here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_resolution#Lateral_resolution
For planets close to the star, there is some visible light - but the star puts out far more light than the planet, which swamps light from the planet. A device called a coronagraph can block out light from the star, leaving light from the planet. JWST has a cornonagraph, and has released some images of a planet far from its star - it just lights up a pixel or two (ie not enough to form an image).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronagraph
There are still some useful things you can do without forming an image:
- If you measure the Doppler shift of the star very accurately, you can often detect planets
- By seeing the orbital period of the planet, you can "weigh" the star, and tell a lot about the sunlight falling on the planet
- For planets which pass in front of the star, you can look at the spectrum of light filtered through the planet's atmosphere. JWST has released a spectrum from such a planetary transit.
«
Last Edit: 24/09/2022 08:02:01 by
evan_au
»
Logged
Print
Pages: [
1
]
Go Up
« previous
next »
Tags:
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...