Magnificent Magnification

(NASA/Ames Research Center chart)

Those dollar-store glasses sure help to decipher the small print within tedious contracts.  But they ain’t nothing compared to the proposed Terrascope.

That's what Columbia University’s David Kipping affectionately calls his latest invention.  It would consist of a one-meter telescope “positioned beyond the moon” that would utilize the Earth’s atmosphere for amplifying “the brightness of dim objects.” This would allow humans to detect asteroids and exoplanets that are currently out of sight.

Because Earth’s atmosphere is subject to change, these images could be quite blurry.  However, they could help to determine whether life is out there somewhere.

       

Resources

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/08/space-telescope-would-turn-earth-giant-magnifying-lens

Copyright August 14, 2019 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved