 Greetings and welcome to the Introduction to Astronomy. In this week's Misconception in Astronomy, we are going to consider the idea that telescopes in space are closer to the stars. So is that the reason that we put telescopes in space? Well, let's find out. And what we find out, our quick answer, no. Telescopes in space are no closer to the stars than a telescope on Earth. Why then do we put a telescope in space? Well, we put things like the Hubble Space Telescope shown here in space to get above Earth's atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere is very turbulent and distorts the images coming from outside. So what would be a nice, fine source will get all blurred coming through the atmosphere. The more turbulent the atmosphere, the more blurring that we get. And that's what actually causes the twinkling of stars. The twinkling of stars is not associated with the stars themselves, but is associated with Earth's atmosphere. However, these telescopes are no closer to the stars than telescopes on the ground. Let's look at an example of this. So let's consider a trip going from New York to Los Angeles. So if we make this trip, which could be something like as shown here, that trip is nearly 4,000 kilometers. So if you take your first step there, are you really any closer in going from New York to LA? And the answer is really no. Technically, you might consider yourself a tiny bit closer, but does it really matter? Now let's look at the example of the Hubble Space Telescope. It orbits 540 kilometers above Earth's surface. And if it were looking straight up away from the Earth as compared to a telescope right below it on the ground, so if we wanted to look at that and compare how much closer that is to, let's say, the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. Alpha Centauri is a little over four light years away, or four times 10 to the 13th kilometers. So if we compare those, how does that relative distance compare? Well, you haven't even taken a tenth of a millimeter on your New York to LA trip. So are you really closer to the stars? No. We put telescopes up above the atmosphere to get above Earth's atmosphere to get better images. But in terms of distance, it makes absolutely no distance. Even for the nearest star, it's only a tiny fraction. You could go out well through the solar system and you still would not be significantly closer to even the nearest star. So let's go ahead and finish up with our summary and just to review what we said here. We put telescopes in space to get above the blurring effects of Earth's atmosphere. They are no closer to stars than a telescope here on Earth. So that concludes this lecture on telescopes in space. We'll be back again next week for another misconception in astronomy. So until then, have a great day, everyone, and I will see you in class.