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Bernardo de La Paz

(57,161 posts)
7. Because resolution
Mon Nov 27, 2023, 06:36 AM
Nov 2023

Saturn is about 10 Astronomical Units from Earth. The nearest exoplanet is 250,000 AU from Earth, about 4 light years. So you'd need a telescope 25,000 times bigger.

You can see Saturn's rings from the ground with a four inch telescope. Not well, but recognizable. You'd need a telescope 2.5 km wide, about 1.5 miles.

To get Hubble resolution you'd need a telescope 25,000 times bigger than 2.4 m (about 7 feet). That would be about 60 km or 37 miles wide. In space.

James Webb resolution of Uranus (about 20 AU) pictured below, more likely ring system than a Saturnian ring system. You'd need a telescope about 12,500 times bigger to get the nearest exoplanet, if it has rings. That would be 6.5 m x 12500 = 81 km or 50 miles. In space.

Two exoplanets are suspected to have rings. They are 450 light years and 1000 light years away. 100 and 250 times the distance used in the calculations above.

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