How the sun could help us image exoplanets

All of the planets in our solar system orbit around the sun. Planets that orbit around other stars are called exoplanets. Exoplanets are very hard to see directly with our present telescopes. This is because they are hidden by the bright glare of the stars they orbit.

So, astronomers use other ways to detect and study these distant planets. They search for exoplanets by looking at the effects these planets have on the stars they orbit. Unfortunately the images produced are poor and blurry blobs at best.

But now, a team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is proposing a mission that will let us see these exoplanets in a comparatively vivid way. Meet the scientists behind what could be the most powerful telescope ever built… with a little help from the sun!

View the original video here.

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