system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How come we can see highly detailed images of a nebula 10,000 light years away but not planets 4.5 light years away?

Or even in our own solar system for that matter?
gpt
Compared to nebulae, planets are very very very very very small. You can see a mountain that is 1 kilometre away from you much clearer than you can see a grain of sand that is 1 metre away.

Edit: as several people have mentioned, planets don't emit any light of their own, this makes it extremely difficult to see planets when they're being drowned out by the light of their parent stars.