How can someone take a picture of a solar system 50 million light years away, but not a coin sized rock on the surface of the moon.

Question

I recently saw a photo somebody posted of a galaxy 50 million light years away. I have always wondered, why doesn’t he point it at the moon or even a planet 10 light years away and see the surface up close? We might see water or certain organisms. I have yet to see a picture like that in my lifetime. Thanks in advance for the answer.

In: Other

Answer 1

We absolutely cannot take photos of solar systems millions of light years away. The most distant planet ever directly imaged is 1200 light years away. The rest are a few dozen light years away. We don’t detect planets by taking pictures of them, we detect them by looking at their effects on their host stars.

As for distant galaxies, they’re huge (thousands of light years across) and insanely bright (containing trillions of starts) whereas a rock is tiny and emits no light of its own.