A team of scientists and engineers from various UK institutions is working on an innovative high-resolution telescope, hailed as the “21st Century’s Hubble Space Telescope.” This ambitious project greatly expands the frontiers of space exploration. It’s all about finding new worlds like strong possibilities of life in their atmospheres, to an extent never seen before.
To this end, the UK Space Agency has funded two research teams to study the feasibility of this revolutionary telescope. A team of experts from University College London 2 lead the project. They’re supplemented by excellent contributions from the University of Portsmouth, RAL Space, UK Astronomy Technology Centre and Durham University. Together, these institutions make up a scientific collaboration that is working together to build a telescope that has the potential to reshape our understanding of the universe.
The mission includes a specialized instrument onboard the telescope – a coronagraph. This new device brilliantly suppresses the extreme glare of the stars, allowing scientists to concentrate their efforts on rocky planets typically obscured because of their proximity to these brilliant stars. This pioneering capability will allow researchers to monitor and observe, as well as study the intricacies of these planets for the first time.
Prof Richard Massey of Durham University, one of the earliest advocates for the telescope, said its impact would go far beyond finding exoplanets. He stated,
“As well as looking for life, a telescope that amazing will watch collisions of asteroids in our solar system, stare into black holes, and solve the mystery of dark matter.”
Telescope’s very multidimensional strategy paves the stream for these multifactorial discoveries, with huge ramifications in some fields of astronomy. The ambitious project fits squarely within NASA’s new Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) mission, helping to foster cooperation on the international stage borne of space exploration.
The development of this new telescope, particularly its size, is an exciting technological achievement. It is a key to unlocking some of the most fundamental questions about life beyond our planet. Scientists have their sights set on rocky exoplanets that lie in habitable zones around stars. They seek to find evidence of life and understand more about planetary formation and evolution.