Inside the Project Blue Mission to photograph 'sister earth 2.0'

Main image: Kepler space telescope data were used to find thousands of exoplanets. Credit: NASA

This would be the greatest scientific discovery in history.

Countless extraterrestrials have been discovered in recent years – in fact, of a single example in 1992, there are now 3,730 confirmed exoplanets – defined as a planet orbits another star – on the list. NASA has even launched its Exoplanet Travel Bureau, which explores three of the most terrestrial: Kepler-16b, Kepler-186f and TRAPPIST-1e

However, no exoplanet has ever been photographed.

Cue Project Blue, which aims to build and launch a space telescope capable of imaging planets located in the "habitable zones" of the stars of the Alpha Centauri system, the star system closest to us. A habitable area around a star is the range of orbits far enough for a planet to support liquid water, which scientists believe to be a must for life to evolve.

If an exoplanet has an atmosphere, or an ocean, this a special telescope could photograph them … and could confirm the existence of another blue planet similar to ours, which might contain life .

Project Blue

The Blue Project consists of Earth Research 2.0 observational astronomy visual astronomy. While most of the exoplanets were discovered using the "transit" method (a telescope observing the light of a star will quiet down slightly as a planet scours its disk), the future of exoplanet exploration will be entirely focused on direct observation and photography. Blue Dot image "class =" lazy-image lazy-image-loading lazyload optional-image "onerror =" this.parentNode.replaceChild (window.missingImage (), this) "sizes =" auto "data-normal =" https: //vanilla.futurecdn.net/techradar/media/img/missing-image.svg "data-src =" https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/a5gSi6sTnv6fMKAi6asSn6-320-80.jpg "data-srcset = "https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/a5gSi6sTnv6fMKAi6asSn6-320-80.jpg 320w, https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/a5gSi6sTnv6fMKAi6asSn6-650-80.jpg 650w" data- sizes = "auto" data-original-mos = "https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/a5gSi6sTnv6fMKAi6asSn6.jpg" data-pin-media = "https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net /a5gSi6sTnv6fMKAi6asSn6.jpg"/>

(Image: © NASA / JPL-Caltech)

Conceptually, Project Blue projects pro create an image that will rival two other iconic astronomical images – the 1968 photo of Apollo 8's Earth – around the Moon, and the 1990's "Blue Dot" image of Voyager 1, that Carl Sagan described as showing "a dust of dust hanging in a sunbeam"

The Project Blue crowfunded mission (you can donate here), which aims to take off in the 2021, is the invention of the 39, BoldlyGo Institute, Mission Centaur, the Extraterrestrial Life Hunters Institute SETI, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Which star system will Project Blue look at? Alpha Centauri, the star system closest to the Earth. "It's a special place to do imaging by exoplanets," says Dr. Jon Morse, CEO and Chairman of the BoldlyGo Institute's Board of Directors, at the Dawn of Symposium. Private Space in June. "It is also the nearest star system, by a factor of 2.5 closer than Sun – like stars that could have a solar system similar to ours.

(Image: © ESO / L.Calcada / Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org))

Alpha Centauri is not a solar system ordinary. At only 4.37 light-years away from us, it consists of three stars: two Sun-sized stars called Alpha Centauri A (also called Rigil Kent) and Alpha Centauri B, and the dwarf red star Proxima Centauri much more small. In fact, Proxima Centauri is closest to us at only 4.24 light-years, but despite the discovery of an Earth-size exoplanet called Proxima Centauri b in 2016, the Blue Project has

While it might be the closest exoplanet, there is a simple reason why Proxima Centauri b is ignored. "We do not look at Proxima Centauri because its habitable areas and the planet we suspect are too close to the star so we can solve it spatially," says Morse. "So we focus on the stars of the Sun Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B."

What is the size of Project Blue's telescope?

In fact, it is rather small. "He's as tall as he has to be," says Morse. "Alpha Centauri is special because it is only at 4.37 light-years, and we only need a primary mirror of 50 cm in diameter to spatially resolve habitable areas."

This small space telescope points out Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, the two largest stars in the Alpha Centauri system, both of which are the same size (give or take) as our Sun. Astronomers already know that Alpha Centauri B has a planet in orbit around, but it's not in the habitable zone of the star. Thus, Project Blue will be looking for new exoplanets not yet discovered and, hopefully, blue.

A new era of exoplanet photography

If the direct imaging of exoplanets is to be the future of astronomy, some fundamental technologies need to be tested first, and that's why it's important to be aware of this. is exactly what Project Blue wants to do. He will use a disc to block the shiny surface of each star – thus creating an artificial total solar eclipse – so that he can see the neighboring planets.

But he will also use a technology called active wavefront control to detect very weak starry light – something that even the $ 8.8 billion US James Webb The space telescope will not be able to do it. "JWST will have coronographs that scientists will use to project Jupiter-class planets around nearby stars, but JWST coronographers will not have active control of the wavefront, and therefore will not be able to to be as close to the stars as we wish.The Project Blue Coronograph, "says Morse

The only other mission currently scheduled to have a coronograph in the image of the exoplanets is NASA's WFIRST mission, whose launch is planned for around 2025. Future mission concepts that could photograph exoplanets in decades include Starshade, EXO-C, HabEx and LUVOIR.

Where is Alpha Centauri in the night sky?

The two bright stars of Alpha Centauri appear as a single point of light in the night sky, and it is mainly visible only from the southern hemisphere.It is the brightest star in the constellation of Centaur, the Centaur. In fact, Alpha Centauri and its close neighbor, Beta Centauri (which is a whopping 390 light-years away from us), are pointing to the Southern Cross.

However, those living within 25 degrees north of the Earth's equator (as in Florida, North Africa, the UAE, northern India and southern China) sometimes see Alpha Centauri peek over the southern horizon. This explains why this star was revered by the ancient Egyptians, who erected temples at Corinth and Delphi that line the Alpha Centauri uplift.

How long would it take to get to Alpha Centauri?

system, but using current rocket technology, it would take about 30,000 years to cross the 40 trillion kilometers (or 4.37 light-years or 1.34 parsecs) between us and Alpha Centauri.

So if we could travel at one tenth of the speed of light, we could make the trip in about 44 years. Speculative projects include Starshot Breakthrough that would send 1,000 ultralight nanocrats moving at one-fifth the speed of light and propelling a tiny graphene-shielded spacecraft on the tip of a laser beam; it is likely, however, that any mission we send to Alpha Centauri would be overtaken by a mission launched much later but using newer and faster technology.

However, in the foreseeable future, interstellar travel is a slow process. because Earth 2.0 should remain a purely photographic hunt for many decades

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