Does anyone here have an idea of which kind of resolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope will provide? I'm assuming that this little rock might not even occupy a single pixel, but I'd love to be wrong.
Of course, this doesn't mean that the telescope can't image light from a smaller planet, just that there would be no resolution to distinguish features on the planet itself. Similarly, even though lots of stars and other astronomical objects are too small to resolve, we can still see the light from them with telescopes (and our eyes).
- 1 parsec ~~ 3.26 light years.
- pixel coverage ~ angular resolution * distance. pixel coverage ~ 0.1 * AU / (distance / 3.26 light-years)
A: Resolution? JWST's cameras can image gas giant planets greater than a few AU from their stars.
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/4zdkra/askscien...
Says we'd need about 30 milliarcseconds, while, as noted elsewhere, Webb provides 100. Damn!