US EditionCircle versus Rectangle: Finding 'Earth 2.0' May Be Easier Using a New Telescope Shape
The new 20-meter by 1-meter rectangular mirror telescope design could find half of Earth-like planets near sun-like stars within three years, aiding NASA's search for biosignatures.
- On Sep. 1, a team led by Heidi Newberg of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and NASA proposed a rotatable rectangular telescope with a 20 meters by 1 meter mirror to image exoplanets.
- Because the JWST is only 6.5 meters in diameter, a 20-meter circular mirror is needed to resolve Earth-size planets at 10 microns but would be prohibitively costly and complex to launch due to rocket fairing and deployment constraints.
- The study estimates the design could find half of Earth-like planets within 30 light-years in under three years and locate about 30 promising Earth-like planets, surveying 69 approximately sun-like stars and almost 300 M dwarf stars within 32.6 light-years.
- If adopted for NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory, the rectangular mirror could meet goals of finding at least 25 habitable exoplanets and detecting biosignatures using existing rockets.
- If realized, the rectangular telescope design could provide a clearer path toward identifying an 'Earth 2.0' by improving detection of Earth-like planets and enabling follow-up observations to identify atmospheric biosignatures such as oxygen.
12 Articles
12 Articles
This Weirdly Brilliant Telescope Design Might Finally Uncover Earth’s Twin
Finding Earth-like planets is nearly impossible because stars drown them out in brightness. Conventional telescope designs fall short, but a proposed rectangular infrared telescope could solve this. It might reveal dozens of promising worlds within 30 light-years, paving the way to spotting signs of life. Origins of Life and Water’s Role Earth is the only [...]
Circle versus rectangle: Finding 'Earth 2.0' may be easier using a new telescope shape
The Earth supports the only known life in the universe, all of it depending heavily on the presence of liquid water to facilitate chemical reactions. While single-celled life has existed almost as long as Earth itself, it took roughly three billion years for multicellular life to form. Human life has existed for less than one-10 thousandth of the age of Earth.
According to American researchers, the design of telescopes should be modified, which in the future would not be circular, but rectangular.
Rectangular space telescopes could reveal dozens of Earth-like planets nearby
One of the boldest dreams in modern astronomy is the search for Earth-like worlds beyond our solar system. These exoplanets may hold oceans, rocky ground, and even atmospheres rich in oxygen or ozone—conditions that hint at life. If such planets orbit stars close to the Sun, future probes or even people might one day reach them. But finding these faint companions around bright stars has proven far harder than early scientists imagined. Most of t…
American astronomers have proposed a new concept of space telescope that could allow us to track exoplanets with remarkable efficiency.
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