If our satellite telescopes can see so damn far, why cant we see life on planets...

[soldiercamp]

...that are close? I don't know if i can find this answer out on my own but I'd rather skip the trouble and take in a response from someone who may already know.

 

[Hanciong]

because to see a planet is much much more difficult than a star. star is shining brightly, whereas a planet isn't shining. even we can not see pluto with good resolution from earth, because the distance is already too far to do so. true, scientist already find few extra solar planets, but that is done without actually seeing the planet. this is how: take the example from our solar system. actually, planets aren't exactly orbiting the sun, rather the truth is: sun and planets are orbiting their COMMON CENTER OF MASS. so, actually the sun also wobbles a little, not static in place. however, because sun is much heavier than all the planets combined, this center of mass is very close to its center. therefore, we don't see it wobbles too much, like planets do. so, the extrasolar planets were found by observing the wobbling motion of their "mother" stars. this tiny tiny effect can be detected by doppler effect. everytime the star wobbles away from us, the light from it gets redshifted a little bit, and when it wobbles closer, the light gets blueshifted. of course this effect is very tiny, so it needs sophisticated observation. so, this is why we haven't seen life in another planet, because we haven't really seen extrasolar planets. we only observing the star's wobbling motion