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Images of exoplanets' surfaces technically possible?
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While already even taking an image of an extra solar planet sounds like science fiction to me, is it technically possible by what we know now to take also more detailed images of extraterrestrial planet surfaces?
For simplicity, let's take Earth-like exoplanets.
Gravitational lenses and the FOCAL spacecraft are first hints I could find so far, but there are seem to be some limitations:
- You can see only objects which are exactly behind the Sun, for specific exoplanets this limits possible view angles, but as this is so far distance, this should not be a problem?
- Magnification up to 10^15, which resolution of the surface does this allow for for say the closest Earth-like exoplanet (12 light years)
- The Wikipedia article on FOCAL says, "images would be hard to interpret" so does this mean pixels would be so random that combined with low res you can't tell what you see? Would we be even able to disambiguate cloud vs. surface boundaries?
astronomy exoplaents
asked 4 hours ago
J. Doe
674322
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
favorite
While already even taking an image of an extra solar planet sounds like science fiction to me, is it technically possible by what we know now to take also more detailed images of extraterrestrial planet surfaces?
For simplicity, let's take Earth-like exoplanets.
Gravitational lenses and the FOCAL spacecraft are first hints I could find so far, but there are seem to be some limitations:
- You can see only objects which are exactly behind the Sun, for specific exoplanets this limits possible view angles, but as this is so far distance, this should not be a problem?
- Magnification up to 10^15, which resolution of the surface does this allow for for say the closest Earth-like exoplanet (12 light years)
- The Wikipedia article on FOCAL says, "images would be hard to interpret" so does this mean pixels would be so random that combined with low res you can't tell what you see? Would we be even able to disambiguate cloud vs. surface boundaries?
astronomy exoplaents
asked 4 hours ago
J. Doe
674322
Exo planets are light years from Earth. Pluto, within our solar system, is between 4.28 billion km & 7.5 billion km from Earth. Pictures of Pluto from Earth telescopes could only produce a colored fuzzy blob. We only go to view the surface of Pluto when the Horizons probe did a fly-by.
– Fred
3 hours ago
1
That question fits better to astronomy than space exploration.
– Uwe
2 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
favorite
up vote
3
down vote
favorite
While already even taking an image of an extra solar planet sounds like science fiction to me, is it technically possible by what we know now to take also more detailed images of extraterrestrial planet surfaces?
For simplicity, let's take Earth-like exoplanets.
Gravitational lenses and the FOCAL spacecraft are first hints I could find so far, but there are seem to be some limitations:
- You can see only objects which are exactly behind the Sun, for specific exoplanets this limits possible view angles, but as this is so far distance, this should not be a problem?
- Magnification up to 10^15, which resolution of the surface does this allow for for say the closest Earth-like exoplanet (12 light years)
- The Wikipedia article on FOCAL says, "images would be hard to interpret" so does this mean pixels would be so random that combined with low res you can't tell what you see? Would we be even able to disambiguate cloud vs. surface boundaries?
astronomy exoplaents
asked 4 hours ago
J. Doe
674322
While already even taking an image of an extra solar planet sounds like science fiction to me, is it technically possible by what we know now to take also more detailed images of extraterrestrial planet surfaces?
For simplicity, let's take Earth-like exoplanets.
Gravitational lenses and the FOCAL spacecraft are first hints I could find so far, but there are seem to be some limitations:
- You can see only objects which are exactly behind the Sun, for specific exoplanets this limits possible view angles, but as this is so far distance, this should not be a problem?
- Magnification up to 10^15, which resolution of the surface does this allow for for say the closest Earth-like exoplanet (12 light years)
- The Wikipedia article on FOCAL says, "images would be hard to interpret" so does this mean pixels would be so random that combined with low res you can't tell what you see? Would we be even able to disambiguate cloud vs. surface boundaries?
astronomy exoplaents
astronomy exoplaents
asked 4 hours ago
J. Doe
674322
asked 4 hours ago
J. Doe
674322
asked 4 hours ago
J. Doe
674322
asked 4 hours ago
J. Doe
674322
asked 4 hours ago
J. Doe
674322
674322
Exo planets are light years from Earth. Pluto, within our solar system, is between 4.28 billion km & 7.5 billion km from Earth. Pictures of Pluto from Earth telescopes could only produce a colored fuzzy blob. We only go to view the surface of Pluto when the Horizons probe did a fly-by.
– Fred
3 hours ago
1
That question fits better to astronomy than space exploration.
– Uwe
2 hours ago
add a comment |Â
Exo planets are light years from Earth. Pluto, within our solar system, is between 4.28 billion km & 7.5 billion km from Earth. Pictures of Pluto from Earth telescopes could only produce a colored fuzzy blob. We only go to view the surface of Pluto when the Horizons probe did a fly-by.
– Fred
3 hours ago
1
That question fits better to astronomy than space exploration.
– Uwe
2 hours ago
Exo planets are light years from Earth. Pluto, within our solar system, is between 4.28 billion km & 7.5 billion km from Earth. Pictures of Pluto from Earth telescopes could only produce a colored fuzzy blob. We only go to view the surface of Pluto when the Horizons probe did a fly-by.
– Fred
3 hours ago
Exo planets are light years from Earth. Pluto, within our solar system, is between 4.28 billion km & 7.5 billion km from Earth. Pictures of Pluto from Earth telescopes could only produce a colored fuzzy blob. We only go to view the surface of Pluto when the Horizons probe did a fly-by.
– Fred
3 hours ago
1
1
That question fits better to astronomy than space exploration.
– Uwe
2 hours ago
That question fits better to astronomy than space exploration.
– Uwe
2 hours ago
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
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With a resolution of 1E-09 radians, Jupiter would be 1 pixel wide at 7 light years.
If you had 1E-10 radians, you could resolve the largest features.
Visible light has a wavelength of 5E-07 meters, so if you wanted to use a cluster of telescopes to synthesize an aperture with some kind of coherent combination, "all you would need" is a 200 meter diameter aperture. It wouldn't have to be solid or filled, a sampled aperture would do it.
In fact, a sampled aperture can be optimized to improve contrast in some areas by loosing efficiency and contrast in other areas. See this answer to the question "What makes small interferometers useful? Like NIRISS on JWST"
You can also read more about it in:
- JWST's NIRISS Aperture Masking Interferometry
- ArXiv NIRISS aperture masking interferometry: an overview of science opportunities
- The JAM Team's: Non-Redundant Aperture Masking Interferometry (AMI) and Segment Phasing with JWST-NIRISS
In June 2018 Science there is a short article talking about the use of optical interferometry from multiple telescopes for imaging. Optical interferometers sharpen views of the sky.
above: "Boiling cells of plasma were seen on a distant red giant star using an optical interferometer in Chile." Source
There is research (beyond the scope of this answer) investigating the use of quantum entanglement to dramatically simplify the interferometric combination of broadband signals from multiple telescopes as well.
answered 2 hours ago
uhoh
31.2k15107384
1
do you mean something like this? iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6641/aabc6d/meta - "quantum interferometer"? Funny enough, I've read recently the sci fi novel "Blind lake" where the author suggests that quantum computing could be used to get sharp zoomed exoplanet surface images allowing exploration of alien life from data coming from an array of space telescope. I really thought "now this is really fiction", but it appears not completely! Thanks for sharing, I'm very delighted now.
– J. Doe
55 mins ago
@J.Doe entangled photons and their applications is really a profound bit of physics and technology. It is really going to change the trajectory of their development substantially later in this century. A whole lot!
– uhoh
28 mins ago
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
3
down vote
With a resolution of 1E-09 radians, Jupiter would be 1 pixel wide at 7 light years.
If you had 1E-10 radians, you could resolve the largest features.
Visible light has a wavelength of 5E-07 meters, so if you wanted to use a cluster of telescopes to synthesize an aperture with some kind of coherent combination, "all you would need" is a 200 meter diameter aperture. It wouldn't have to be solid or filled, a sampled aperture would do it.
In fact, a sampled aperture can be optimized to improve contrast in some areas by loosing efficiency and contrast in other areas. See this answer to the question "What makes small interferometers useful? Like NIRISS on JWST"
You can also read more about it in:
- JWST's NIRISS Aperture Masking Interferometry
- ArXiv NIRISS aperture masking interferometry: an overview of science opportunities
- The JAM Team's: Non-Redundant Aperture Masking Interferometry (AMI) and Segment Phasing with JWST-NIRISS
In June 2018 Science there is a short article talking about the use of optical interferometry from multiple telescopes for imaging. Optical interferometers sharpen views of the sky.
above: "Boiling cells of plasma were seen on a distant red giant star using an optical interferometer in Chile." Source
There is research (beyond the scope of this answer) investigating the use of quantum entanglement to dramatically simplify the interferometric combination of broadband signals from multiple telescopes as well.
answered 2 hours ago
uhoh
31.2k15107384
1
do you mean something like this? iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6641/aabc6d/meta - "quantum interferometer"? Funny enough, I've read recently the sci fi novel "Blind lake" where the author suggests that quantum computing could be used to get sharp zoomed exoplanet surface images allowing exploration of alien life from data coming from an array of space telescope. I really thought "now this is really fiction", but it appears not completely! Thanks for sharing, I'm very delighted now.
– J. Doe
55 mins ago
@J.Doe entangled photons and their applications is really a profound bit of physics and technology. It is really going to change the trajectory of their development substantially later in this century. A whole lot!
– uhoh
28 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
With a resolution of 1E-09 radians, Jupiter would be 1 pixel wide at 7 light years.
If you had 1E-10 radians, you could resolve the largest features.
Visible light has a wavelength of 5E-07 meters, so if you wanted to use a cluster of telescopes to synthesize an aperture with some kind of coherent combination, "all you would need" is a 200 meter diameter aperture. It wouldn't have to be solid or filled, a sampled aperture would do it.
In fact, a sampled aperture can be optimized to improve contrast in some areas by loosing efficiency and contrast in other areas. See this answer to the question "What makes small interferometers useful? Like NIRISS on JWST"
You can also read more about it in:
- JWST's NIRISS Aperture Masking Interferometry
- ArXiv NIRISS aperture masking interferometry: an overview of science opportunities
- The JAM Team's: Non-Redundant Aperture Masking Interferometry (AMI) and Segment Phasing with JWST-NIRISS
In June 2018 Science there is a short article talking about the use of optical interferometry from multiple telescopes for imaging. Optical interferometers sharpen views of the sky.
above: "Boiling cells of plasma were seen on a distant red giant star using an optical interferometer in Chile." Source
There is research (beyond the scope of this answer) investigating the use of quantum entanglement to dramatically simplify the interferometric combination of broadband signals from multiple telescopes as well.
answered 2 hours ago
uhoh
31.2k15107384
1
do you mean something like this? iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6641/aabc6d/meta - "quantum interferometer"? Funny enough, I've read recently the sci fi novel "Blind lake" where the author suggests that quantum computing could be used to get sharp zoomed exoplanet surface images allowing exploration of alien life from data coming from an array of space telescope. I really thought "now this is really fiction", but it appears not completely! Thanks for sharing, I'm very delighted now.
– J. Doe
55 mins ago
@J.Doe entangled photons and their applications is really a profound bit of physics and technology. It is really going to change the trajectory of their development substantially later in this century. A whole lot!
– uhoh
28 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
up vote
3
down vote
With a resolution of 1E-09 radians, Jupiter would be 1 pixel wide at 7 light years.
If you had 1E-10 radians, you could resolve the largest features.
Visible light has a wavelength of 5E-07 meters, so if you wanted to use a cluster of telescopes to synthesize an aperture with some kind of coherent combination, "all you would need" is a 200 meter diameter aperture. It wouldn't have to be solid or filled, a sampled aperture would do it.
In fact, a sampled aperture can be optimized to improve contrast in some areas by loosing efficiency and contrast in other areas. See this answer to the question "What makes small interferometers useful? Like NIRISS on JWST"
You can also read more about it in:
- JWST's NIRISS Aperture Masking Interferometry
- ArXiv NIRISS aperture masking interferometry: an overview of science opportunities
- The JAM Team's: Non-Redundant Aperture Masking Interferometry (AMI) and Segment Phasing with JWST-NIRISS
In June 2018 Science there is a short article talking about the use of optical interferometry from multiple telescopes for imaging. Optical interferometers sharpen views of the sky.
above: "Boiling cells of plasma were seen on a distant red giant star using an optical interferometer in Chile." Source
There is research (beyond the scope of this answer) investigating the use of quantum entanglement to dramatically simplify the interferometric combination of broadband signals from multiple telescopes as well.
answered 2 hours ago
uhoh
31.2k15107384
With a resolution of 1E-09 radians, Jupiter would be 1 pixel wide at 7 light years.
If you had 1E-10 radians, you could resolve the largest features.
Visible light has a wavelength of 5E-07 meters, so if you wanted to use a cluster of telescopes to synthesize an aperture with some kind of coherent combination, "all you would need" is a 200 meter diameter aperture. It wouldn't have to be solid or filled, a sampled aperture would do it.
In fact, a sampled aperture can be optimized to improve contrast in some areas by loosing efficiency and contrast in other areas. See this answer to the question "What makes small interferometers useful? Like NIRISS on JWST"
You can also read more about it in:
- JWST's NIRISS Aperture Masking Interferometry
- ArXiv NIRISS aperture masking interferometry: an overview of science opportunities
- The JAM Team's: Non-Redundant Aperture Masking Interferometry (AMI) and Segment Phasing with JWST-NIRISS
In June 2018 Science there is a short article talking about the use of optical interferometry from multiple telescopes for imaging. Optical interferometers sharpen views of the sky.
above: "Boiling cells of plasma were seen on a distant red giant star using an optical interferometer in Chile." Source
There is research (beyond the scope of this answer) investigating the use of quantum entanglement to dramatically simplify the interferometric combination of broadband signals from multiple telescopes as well.
answered 2 hours ago
uhoh
31.2k15107384
edited 2 hours ago
answered 2 hours ago
uhoh
31.2k15107384
answered 2 hours ago
uhoh
31.2k15107384
answered 2 hours ago
uhoh
31.2k15107384
31.2k15107384
1
do you mean something like this? iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6641/aabc6d/meta - "quantum interferometer"? Funny enough, I've read recently the sci fi novel "Blind lake" where the author suggests that quantum computing could be used to get sharp zoomed exoplanet surface images allowing exploration of alien life from data coming from an array of space telescope. I really thought "now this is really fiction", but it appears not completely! Thanks for sharing, I'm very delighted now.
– J. Doe
55 mins ago
@J.Doe entangled photons and their applications is really a profound bit of physics and technology. It is really going to change the trajectory of their development substantially later in this century. A whole lot!
– uhoh
28 mins ago
add a comment |Â
1
do you mean something like this? iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6641/aabc6d/meta - "quantum interferometer"? Funny enough, I've read recently the sci fi novel "Blind lake" where the author suggests that quantum computing could be used to get sharp zoomed exoplanet surface images allowing exploration of alien life from data coming from an array of space telescope. I really thought "now this is really fiction", but it appears not completely! Thanks for sharing, I'm very delighted now.
– J. Doe
55 mins ago
@J.Doe entangled photons and their applications is really a profound bit of physics and technology. It is really going to change the trajectory of their development substantially later in this century. A whole lot!
– uhoh
28 mins ago
1
1
do you mean something like this? iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6641/aabc6d/meta - "quantum interferometer"? Funny enough, I've read recently the sci fi novel "Blind lake" where the author suggests that quantum computing could be used to get sharp zoomed exoplanet surface images allowing exploration of alien life from data coming from an array of space telescope. I really thought "now this is really fiction", but it appears not completely! Thanks for sharing, I'm very delighted now.
– J. Doe
55 mins ago
do you mean something like this? iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6641/aabc6d/meta - "quantum interferometer"? Funny enough, I've read recently the sci fi novel "Blind lake" where the author suggests that quantum computing could be used to get sharp zoomed exoplanet surface images allowing exploration of alien life from data coming from an array of space telescope. I really thought "now this is really fiction", but it appears not completely! Thanks for sharing, I'm very delighted now.
– J. Doe
55 mins ago
@J.Doe entangled photons and their applications is really a profound bit of physics and technology. It is really going to change the trajectory of their development substantially later in this century. A whole lot!
– uhoh
28 mins ago
@J.Doe entangled photons and their applications is really a profound bit of physics and technology. It is really going to change the trajectory of their development substantially later in this century. A whole lot!
– uhoh
28 mins ago
add a comment |Â
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Exo planets are light years from Earth. Pluto, within our solar system, is between 4.28 billion km & 7.5 billion km from Earth. Pictures of Pluto from Earth telescopes could only produce a colored fuzzy blob. We only go to view the surface of Pluto when the Horizons probe did a fly-by.
– Fred
3 hours ago
1
That question fits better to astronomy than space exploration.
– Uwe
2 hours ago