Telescopes are an essential tool for astronomers to study the universe. You plan to build your
own telescope that can resolve the Great Red Spot on the surface of Jupiter at a wavelength of
600 nm. The farthest distance between the Earth and Jupiter is 968 × 106 km and the Great Red
Spot has currently a diameter of 16,500 km.
(a) Use the Rayleigh criterion to determine the diameter of the lens’ aperture of your telescope
that is needed to resolve the Great Red Spot on Jupiter.
Impacts have formed many craters on the Moon’s surface. You would like to study some of the
craters with your new telescope. The distance between Moon and Earth is 384,400 km.
(b) What is the smallest possible size of the craters that your telescope can resolve?
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