
The Solar Gravitational Lens Will Map Exoplanets. Seriously - peter_d_sherman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQFqDKRAROI
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peter_d_sherman
The basic set of ideas here are as follows:

1) The Sun is a very strong gravity well.

2) Light rays (in this case, from distant regions of space) are bent around
strong gravitational wells, that is, gravity curves space-time around it, as
Einstein pointed out.

3) Mankind, at this point in our history, is capable of launching
satellites/space-probes -- that can carry long-range light detection
equipment, and these satellites/space-probes can be positioned in certain
positions and at certain distances from the sun such that faint light from
distant galaxies can be detected at some distance from the edge of the sun
(the sun's light, if it should interfere, is blocked or filtered out, and/or
subtracted from the data via advanced machine learning algorithms...)

4) The data gathered should be able to be re-assembled into images showing
what exists at great distances in space.

5) Net effect, if it works, is that a "virtual telescope" is created, whose
mirror/lens -- is many millions, if not billions of times larger than the
largest mirror/lens on the largest space telescope in orbit today...

In other words, _that 's one heck of a telescope_ (!) for studying distant
galaxies -- if it could be made to work...

Crossing my fingers for the future of this technology! <g>

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rbanffy
The only downside is that it's very hard to point this telescope. Once
deployed, it's very much fixed but, with some luck, it can image multiple
planets, as long as they are in the same system.

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peter_d_sherman
I think we can all agree that it's not "production ready" just yet! <g>

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rbanffy
Such a shame. It could be somewhat of a successor of the BBC or the Apple II
as the canonical platform for education for a future generation.

