It contains a huge starshade that blocks light from stars to help giant telescopes study distant exoplanets.
"Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s"
"What the decadal survey from the National Academy of Sciences said was that we need to see these little planets. And they thought the best tool would be a six-meter diameter Space Telescope, which would be much more accurate and stable than the Webb telescope. We know we can build something that big now, so that's the preferred solution," said Mather."Nobody has ever built the kind of perfect optics that it would require.
In an effectively geostationary orbit, a starshade would need to match the position and velocity of the moving telescope and cast a dark shadow that blocked light from the star without blocking the light of its planets. According to HOEE's abstract, while active propulsion would maintain alignment during the observation, adaptive optics in the telescope would make up for atmospheric distortion of the incoming images.
Despite the distance, it's not that hard to tell if the starshade is in the right place. "If it isn't lined up correctly, the stars will start to shine on the telescope, and the shadow won't be good enough anymore. The hard problem is pushing the starshade - a lot of rocket fuel is required to push the starshade into the right place for more than a moment," said Mather.
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