USAAAO — 2024 First Round

The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is an optical telescope under construction in Chile. The primary mirror has been planned to have a diameter of 39.3 m making it the largest optical telescope ever built. One of the goals for this telescope is the direct imaging of exoplanets. Consider an exoplanet at a distance of 1 A.U. from a star. What is the maximum distance from Earth of such a star-exoplanet system in which the ELT can resolve the exoplanet separately from the star? Ignore atmospheric seeing and assume optical wavelength to be 500 nm.