March 28, 2014 – NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been experimenting with the creation of a star shade which they call the starshade, all one word. It looks when unfolded like a giant sunflower and in conjunction with a space telescope can block starlight so that companion exoplanets can be revealed. This is very much works like the Moon in a solar eclipse. It blocks the sunlight so that the corona is revealed.
The sunflower shape isn’t just artistic. The petals soften the edge of the shade and cause less bending of the light waves. This ensures that the shadow the shade casts is very dark and serves well as a starlight blocker.
Still in prototype stage, the engineers designing the starshade plan to deploy a near-full scale model in the laboratory to measure its accuracy. One thing for sure, deploying it along with a space telescope would give us the means to see Earth-size exoplanets and even take a pretty good picture of them while studying light characteristics to determine their composition.
Related articles across the web
Related Posts
What’s Next After The International Space Station Retires?
Starliner Fails Its Test Flight And Will Return Astronaut Empty Next Month
Will Doctors Soon Have Digital Twins of Patients to Monitor Their Health?
Can Humans Direct The Weather? Ask Marjorie Taylor Greene
Putting Fluoride In Community Water Supplies Is Being Questioned
Generative AI Techniques Applied to Robotics is Producing Startling Results
A National Day of Truth and Reconciliation Brings Back Memories
When Will An AI Win A Nobel Prize?
