4 ms·
There's a whole lot of nothing out there. Why rush to get a closer look at nothing?
by xhkkffbf 2y ago
There's a whole lot of nothing out there. Why rush to get a closer look at nothing?
- shagie 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOCAL_(spacecraft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOCAL_(spacecraft) > FOCAL (an acronym for Fast Outgoing Cyclopean Astronomical Lens) is a proposed space telescope that would use the Sun as a gravity lens. > ... > In order to use the Sun as a gravity lens, it would be necessary to send the telescope to a minimum distance of 550 astronomical units away from the Sun, enabling very high signal amplifications: for example, at the 203 GHz wavelength, amplification of 1.3 x 10e15. Maccone suggests that this should be enough to obtain detailed images of the surfaces of extrasolar planets. > ... > FOCAL does not require any non-existing technology; however, it has various limitations. A space mission of this duration and distance has never been attempted; for comparison, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes are at distances of 147 AU and 122 AU in 2019. While it's beyond our current engineering, its not impractically more. It's a program that would span generations between launch and data collection.