Why can’t we invent a telescope that zooms infinitely at perfect resolution to look at distant planets?
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Well, that telescope would have to be infinity sized to do such!
The biggest factors in a telescope ability to see are the size of its optics and the medium it’s seeing through. (There’s others but let’s stick to these important ones)
Bigger optics are better. And less “stuff” to see through is better. One reason space based telescopes are so useful is that land based telescopes have to see through the atmosphere which is nasty and turbulent, to get around that you move your telescope higher in altitude (such as placing telescopes on mountains in Hawaii or Chile) so there is less atmosphere to see through, atmosphere distorts the picture or better yet, how about in space where there is no atmosphere!
There are ways to correct some for the atmosphere and tricks to get smaller telescopes to perform better. But ultimately, bigger and less or no atmosphere is gonna be better.
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