Question

The Hubble Space Telescope has a mirror diameter of 2.4 m. Suppose the telescope is used to photograph stars near the center of our galaxy, 30,000 light years away, using red light with a wavelength of 650 nm.

a. What’s the distance (in km) between two stars that are marginally resolved? The resolution of a reflecting telescope is calculated exactly the same as for a refracting telescope.

b. For comparison, what is this distance as a multiple of the distance of Jupiter from the sun?

Short answer

$$\begin{gathered} a.)\theta =1.9297\times {10}^{-5} \\ b.)d=3.8cm \end{gathered}$$

Step-by-step solution

part(a) step.1:given information 

the distance (in km) between two stars that are marginally resolved. The resolution of a reflecting telescope is calculated exactly the same as for a refracting telescope

Part (a) step.2: calculation

Part(b) step.1 given information 

this distance as a multiple of the distance of Jupiter from the sun

Part (b) Step.2