>>12282057Let's do a back of the envelope calculation.
Let's say you can resolve Jupiter in a 10 cm refractor and that it is 1 light hour away. There are about 9000 hours per year, so to resolve a gas giant at 1 lightyear you need a scope 9000 times wider, or 900 meters. Some interesting objects are 3000 ly away.
Not even the proposed 100 m telescope is anywhere near this, and will be on the ground and has atmospheric issues to handle too. Even on the moon this would be unwieldy.
Most likely we would have to build a vast mirror in Sun - Earth L2, facing outwards along the ecliptic and scan absolutely everything in its path, clocking in 1 GB+ data per second. Judging by the JWST we are talking at least 100 years into the future.
