How can the hubble telescope see millions of lightyears away but is unable to take a clear picture of Mars?

1 Answer
Phillip E.
Nov 25, 2015

It is all a matter of resolution.

Explanation:

Distant objects are effectively points of light. A single pixel on Hubble's CCD camera is enough to "photograph" a star.

Although Mars is a nearby planet, it would require a lot of pixels of data to obtain a good image of the planet's surface. Mars is too far away to do this with Hubble. The only way a clear photograph of mars can be taken is to send a probe close enough to Mars that it can take a high resolution image.

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