Eli5 how telescope works? How can you look at other planets and solar system but not new york from alasca?
In: Physics
You look at other planets in a straight line – that’s why you can’t see them when they’re on the other side of the earth.
Both cities your mentioned are on the planet, though, and the planet isn’t flat, so there’s no straight line to see along.
While light can definitely be affected by gravity, it isn’t by something as relatively low-mass as a mere planet – you need superheavy objects for that, like black holes.
You cannot see New York from Alaska because the earth is ball shaped. That means the surface of the earth is curved.
If there were no buildings in the way, the furthest you can see is called the horizon. After the horizon the surface drops down. The horizon is only about 3 or 4 miles away.
Obviously New York is a long long distance away so it is below the horizon. A telescope cannot see things beyond the horizon because it would be hidden.
Looking at other planets and solar systems, you are looking at a straight line. Not only do you have the curvature of the earth from Alaska to New York but you also have several mountain ranges you would have to look up and over.
Just to add to all this. IF the earth were flat you would also have a ton of thick atmosphere to look through. Where as looking up and out you only have a relatively small amount of atmosphere to look through. As is, the atmospheric distortion is something that needs to be dealt with on a professional level. Put up with on an amateur level.
Air is only *mostly* transparent. If you look at the moon or a star, you’re looking up through about a mile or two of slightly dusty, slightly foggy, slightly hazy air. No problem!
If you looked through a hundred miles of air, the image will be hazy and shift around due to the slight bending of optical paths due to air temperature differences.
A thousand miles of air is just too much.
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