Imaging earth like exoplanets around Sun-like stars from the ground is challenging. We have never done it and here is an advance that could make it possible. A Nature paper predicts the performance of a hybrid space–ground approach that combines a large ground-based telescope, such as the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the Thirty Meter Telescope …
Astronomers have detected the most promising signs yet of a possible biosignature outside the solar system. The most likely reason (when combined with other observation) for seeing 1000 times more of the chemical DMS would be that exoplanet K2-18B is an ocean planet teeming with life. This ocean filled with life is causing the chemical …
1. Newly-built planet-finding instrument installed on Very Large Telescope aims to be first to directly image a habitable exoplanet. The instrument, called NEAR (Near Earths in the AlphaCen Region), is designed to hunt for exoplanets in our neighbouring star system, Alpha Centauri, within the “habitable zones” of its two Sun-like stars, where water could potentially …
Large Membrane Holographic Space Telescope Would 80 Meters in Diameter
Ground Based Optical Interferometry Directly Images Exoplanet and Sees Its Atmosphere
The Keck Planet Finder telescope might start operating in 2019. It will be used to discover exoplanets, particularly around nearby, bright stars and will excel at measuring the masses of planets discovered by transiting programs such as Kepler, TESS, and PLATO. The Keck Planet Finder (KPF) is a spectrometer for the Keck Observatory that will …
Habitable exoplanets around low-mass stars could be the most common type of habitable planets. Chemical rockets could be inadequate for many of these exoplanets.
Slava Turyshev of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposes to study a mission to the deep regions outside the solar system that will exploit the remarkable optical properties of the Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL) focus to effectively build an astronomical telescope capable of direct megapixel high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy of a potentially habitable exoplanet. Although theoretically …
Valleytronics is exciting as a potential avenue to quantum computing. Like spintronics, valleytronics offers a tremendous advantage in data processing speeds over the electrical charge used in classical electronics. “In valleytronics, electrons move through the lattice of a 2D semiconductor as a wave with two energy valleys, each valley being characterized by a distinct momentum …
Elon Musk indicates that about 75 percent of the vehicle’s costs are in the first stage booster. After a test-firing in late January, 2017 one the boosters that have been successfully landed by Spacex is now being transported to Cape Canaveral in preparation for the SES launch, tentatively scheduled for March. Other SpaceX rockets not …
A team of scientists from Newcastle and Northumbria universities, led by architecture academic Dr Martyn Dade-Robertson, are investigating how they can create a new kind of material – biocement – where engineered cells react to changes in the environment and strengthen the soil around them. Their research is outlined in a paper which will be …