ELI5, Why does the James Webb telescope take poor photos of our own solar system?

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So the JW telescope can see billions of lightyears into the distance/past and see countless galaxies in the focal point of a grain of sand, but when it’s aimed at at Uranus or a closer planet, the photos are very low quality.

Why can’t a telescope that powerful capture a good image inside our own solar system?

I understand it sees different wavelengths to typical telescopes but why can’t it take a sharp photo of the light emitting from the planet that’s not blurry?

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6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Planets are much smaller than distant galaxies. Yes, they’re also closer but, if you do the maths, Uranus isn’t close enough for pin-sharp details to be resolved (to your satisfaction) even by JWST. When the numbers are all so literally astronomical, human intuition fails and maths becomes necessary to make comparisons like these.

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