NASA’s future telescopes need robust, high-sensitivity, kilopixel-format superconducting arrays that operate over the entire far-IR spectrum. Previously, some of the key technologies needed for these arrays were demonstrated on the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera (HAWC+) on the Stratospheric Observatory for Far-Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). Those detectors provided excellent performance for suborbital far-IR applications, but their production was very labor intensive with relatively low fabrication yields. The remaining major technologies required to enable future FIR space-based telescopes are: (a) robust detector array architectures with approximately 100,000 individual pixels and (b) integrated readout multiplexers that can meet the ultra-low noise requirements of space missions.
There is a temperature difference between space and the temperature of free roaming rogue exoplanets. Highly sensitive infrared (heat) detectors should be able to spot lower temperature differences.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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A 21st century movie about detecting a rogue planet on a collision course would be great.
With aliens on it? Or robots?
How would this be any different from the dozen or so movies on exactly this subject that already exist? Some of which, Deep Impact etc. are still fairly fresh with SFX that aren’t out of date yet.
You need a twist. Something that is new.
My suggestion: it’s inhabited. Cue an endless stream of ethical dilemmas. Even better, they aren’t real dilemmas because the aliens would be destroyed by the impact anyway.
I’ve got the ideal twist… The rogue planet headed for Earth has aliens with advanced technology. We try to blow up or deflect them, they try the same to Earth. Who ‘wins’?
We’re able to communicate with them, but neither side tells the truth on what they plan
to do.