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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 07/05/2006 : 22:36:12
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This idea seems a simple and practical way to view extrasolar planets, without having to hope for a local planet to wander by just so to provide occlusion:quote:
'Starshade' may aid space exploration
Wednesday, July 5, 2006; Posted: 12:02 p.m. EDT (16:02 GMT)
The 'starshade' would use thrusters to move
into the line of sight of distant stars.
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A huge daisy-shaped shield that would block out light from parent stars could be used to find Earth-like planets in other solar systems, an American astronomer said on Wednesday.
He and his team have designed a plastic "starshade" measuring 50 yards (45 meters) in diameter that would orbit in tandem with a trailing telescope and block out light from parent stars to enable scientists to map planetary systems.
. . .
More at: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/07/05/space.shield.reut/index.html
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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JohnOAS
SFN Regular
Australia
800 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2006 : 16:18:38 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by HalfMooner
This idea seems a simple and practical way to view extrasolar planets, without having to hope for a local planet to wander by just so to provide occlusion:[quote]'Starshade' may aid space exploration
Nice stuff, here is a link to a New Scientist article on the same proposal. It was also mentioned on one of the podcasts, I'm pretty sure it was the New Scientist one, but I can't remember the date, I'll see if I can dig it up.
Makes me feel sad for those who feel we shouldn't be doing anything out of the planet until we've solved all our problems "down here". I fear we'd be waiting a while, even if all the worlds space exploration / astronomy budgets were diverted elsewhere. |
John's just this guy, you know. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2006 : 17:50:06 [Permalink]
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Thanks, John, that was a much better link.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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