The special satellite will block the light of distant stars
This may sound like a crazy plan, an insane villain from another movie about James bond, but researchers from Stanford University plan to create an artificial Eclipse by using opaque satellite.
But fortunately, their goal is not the Sun, and the stars, the satellite will block the light of distant stars, allowing the telescope to search for extrasolar planets that may revolve around them.
In recent years we have discovered thousands of exoplanets, and most of them were found in occlusion, when the regular dips in the light from the stars point to the orbit of the planet around. But if the star light is useful for detection of planets, in their study it only hinders.
“Using indirect measurements, it is possible to detect objects near the star and find out their orbit and distance from the star. This is all important information, but only by direct observation it is possible to characterize the chemical composition of the planet and to find signs of biological activity – of life,” says Simone D’amico, the lead researcher of the project.
To solve this problem, scientists from Stanford offered a project called mDOT (literally can be deciphered as “Miniaturization distributing screen/telescope”). The Duo will include a 100-kilogram microsatellite, performing the role of a screen Star, and 10-kilogram nanosatellite, equipped with a small telescope. The satellite screen will obscure the light from a star to a telescope it was possible to observe the planet.
This interaction satellites will resemble a graceful dance that requires precise positioning. The best view on the planet will be at the point in the orbit of the satellites, where they move slowly against each other, giving researchers about an hour to view the target planet. After that, the Duo starts to move away from each other. Such satellites are extremely difficult for humans, especially given the delay of communication, so researchers now focus on developing Autonomous control system.
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