How do telescopes see so far into space? Since celestial bodies are thousands & millions of light years away, How can NASA telescopes capture an image of planets & galaxies that far?

Question

I quite frankly understand the concept of light years and how light has to travel before we (humans on earth) can process that image. For example, the sun that we see in the sky is actually the sun 8 minutes prior to when we were viewing it, because it takes 8 minutes for the light of the sun to travel to earth.

With that, how do these mega-telescopes work (Hubble and James Webb)? And does it mean we’ll never be able to see how planets and galaxies look in present time?

In: 15

Answer 1

Light can cut through the universe as long as nothing gets in the way. So the light that has been shining through space for billions of years will just keep going unless something gets in the way: like a telescope!

These telescopes are many times more powerful than your phone camera – meaning it can take “pictures” with a lot less light.

And unfortunately, no – we will never see anything in present time. Even when you look in the mirror, you’re seeing yourself from a tiny, tiny fraction of a second ago. That light had to reflect off you, reflect off the mirror, and end up in your eyes. This is a miniscule fraction of time, but technically, it’s not in real time. The farther something is away, the longer ago you’re seeing.