They say the shot was the equivalent of an image of a building in New York City taken from Paris.
In any case, I too thought with the scopes they have today they would be able to take a much clearer photo than that.
We have really sharp images of Pluto and its satellite moons. But these images of course were taken by spacecraft we had sent there.
“In any case, I too thought with the scopes they have today they would be able to take a much clearer photo than that.”
If it was a terrestrial telescope used to take the photo (I’m sure it was), there might not have been time to utilize adaptive optics capability (to “erase” the effects of atmospheric turbulence). Also, the existing photo is probably pretty dang good in terms of resolution.
Optics are governed by a theoretical resolving limit called the “diffraction limit.” But most observations from Earth are “seeing-limited” due to atmospheric effects and work at a much lower resolution than the diffraction limit. The distortion introduced by the passage of light through several miles of turbulent atmosphere is the limiting factor. Most advanced observatories use adaptive optics technology to compensate for atmospheric turbulence, resulting in greater image resolution for faint targets, but it is still difficult to reach the diffraction limit using adaptive optics.
I worked for a startup company founded by two telescope optical scientists from the Keck Observatory. We were applying their adaptive optics technology to free space optical communication.
The problem is that its moving too fast, too close to the camera. Something like Pluto, while moving fast as well, appears slower at this distance.
For example, it is much easier to photograph a motorcycle race at a distance—you are able to track the motion and keep the frame in focus.
On the other hand, if an item is crossing your plain of view and you are trying to track it with a huge telephoto lens, you are going to have a bear of a time shooting in focus and panning at the proper speed.
(I was a professional sports photographer for 14 years. I dealt with this stuff every day.)