The project aims to use the Sun as a gigantic lens to peer into the far reaches of the cosmos — and search for aliens.
, Turyshev teamed up with the Aerospace Corporation, a California-based nonprofit that operates federally funded research, to explore the feasibility of the idea.
Here's what they propose: the mission would involve several small satellites that self-assemble at the solar gravitational lens point, an epic journey that could take up to 25 years. The SGL marks the spot where the assembled satellites, the Sun and a distant exoplanet target would form a straight line. The Sun's gravitational field would then greatly magnify light from the exoplanet as it passes by, allowing the satellites to peer far beyond what has been possible so far.
That point also happens to be around 1,000 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun, which is several times the total distance NASA's Voyager 1 probe has traveled over its 44 year journey, asTo cover the distance, the mission would take advantage of a solar sail, which are only starting to be tested by scientists.
In simple terms, a solar sail takes advantage of the tiny amounts of radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large "sails" or mirrors, to slowly accelerate to high velocities.If such a mission were to ever become a reality — an astronomicalat this point in time — we could potentially peer into a different star system altogether without having to go there ourselves, Turyshev and his colleagues argue in their paper.
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