Thread

A 12-year sequence of telescope images of a star and four planets orbiting

402 points · 82 comments · mariuz

ortusdux · 1790979604 · focus · HN ↗
I'm excited for the leap in this tech that the Nancy Grace Roman telescope's new chronograph promises.
<a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/the-roman-coronagraph-instrument/" rel="nofollow">https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/the-roman-coronagraph-inst...
The Roman Coronagraph is designed to detect planets 100 million times fainter than their stars, which is 100 to 1,000 times better than existing space-based coronagraphs. The Roman Coronagraph will be capable of directly imaging reflected starlight from a planet akin to Jupiter in size, temperature, and distance from its parent star.
1. izend · 1790980052 · focus · HN ↗
  I am as well and hopefully Starship allows even larger telescopes!
  1. lukeify · 1790981375 · focus · HN ↗
    Starship can do it.
    As long as the telescope can fit through the Starlink Pez dispenser.
    alexpotato · 1791033082 · focus · HN ↗
    A. I watched a documentary on the plane about SpaceX where they showed the Pez dispenser working and it was amazing.
    B. You could have multiple panels operate as a swarm. There could be many "mirrors" that focus images on one central "collector". That would be larger than any telescope that needs to be shipped as one unit e.g. James-Webb.
    grvbck · 1791041891 · focus · HN ↗
    > B. You could have multiple panels operate as a swarm.
    Is that level of precision even remotely achievable with today's technology?
    My understanding is that orbital insertion accuracy is in the ±10-50 meters range, with the most advanced formation flying satellite swarms hitting 10 cm to 1 m precision between satellites with the help of optical navigation.
    But the precision between the panels on a telescope like JWST is in the sub-mm range, no?
    Also, I'd assume stuff like orbital decay, atmospheric drag, gravitational perturbations, and solar radiation pressure would make it difficult to maintain precision over time.
    I'm sure/hopeful there's some people here at HN working on stuff like this, please fill in and correct me!
    ortusdux · 1791056270 · focus · HN ↗
    Interferometry can be used to effectively combine multiple telescopes into one large imager. The technique becomes much more difficult at higher wavelengths, but there has been recent advances in infrared systems.
    It would be nice to see a swarm of satellites advance astronomy for once!
    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_interferometer" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_interferometer
    alexpotato · 1791134251 · focus · HN ↗
    Yes, this exactly!
    The benefit of the "pez dispenser" is that you can very efficiently send up lots of the parts and then deploy them into gigantic arrays.

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