Hubble Ultra Deep Field

[dave_c]

Silly question from Johnny Layman here, if the Hubble Telescope can take pictures of very deep space as that Hubble Ultra Deep Field picture, what stopping it from taking a shot of a surface of an planet from another solar system in our galaxy? Is it because the orbit or limited speed of light or something?

[scotstone]

It is because the star around which a planet must be orbiting would be too bright for the telescope and would overpower any reflected light from the planet.

[Loosehead]

As above, the objects that are seen in the "deep field" pictures are galaxies that are averge of 50,000 light years across, a planet is too small, even in a local solar system.