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I’d like to see more than a dot that NASA regularly shows as exoplanets using the latest tech.
by m3kw9 4y ago
I’d like to see more than a dot that NASA regularly shows as exoplanets using the latest tech.
- ben_w 4y agoI think a Jupiter sized planet, 20 light years away, imaged at 500nm wavelength, would need a 826 meter diameter mirror just to make it 2 pixels instead of 1. Space is big.
- jlokier 4y agoFortunately a large mirror doesn't have to be a continuous surface, and it doesn't need all of that area either. A constellation of optically linked telescopes each with small mirrors would be able to image the same exoplanet. Controlling the optical linkages or equivalently the trajectories precise and fast enough is difficult, but as far as I know this is not a fundamental limitation. What a fun project that would be to build!