Question

32.5: The primary mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope is 2.4 m in diameter. Suppose it is most sensitive to light of wavelength of 820 nm.
   a) What is the diffraction limited angular resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope?
   b) If the HST were used to look at the surface of the Moon, what is the minimum distance between two distinguishable points? (The Moon orbits at a distance of 384000 km from the center of the Earth which has a radius of 6380 km, the Hat orbits at an altitude of 569 km.)
   c) If the HST were used to look at the surface of Jupiter, what is the minimum distance between two distinguishable points? (The orbital radius of the Earth is 150 * 10^6 km, and the orbital radius of Jupiter is 779 * 10^6 km.)
   d) If the HST were used to try to find planets around a star that was only 20 light years away (very close in astronomical terms), what is the minimum distance between two distinguishable points? (c = 3.00 * 10^8 m/s)

Answer 1