Astronomers and scientists across the world have garnered greater insights about black holes, dark energy, extrasolar planets, and cosmic evolution in recent years thanks to a range of ground-based and space telescopes including the Hubble space telescope; however, humanity’s most compelling question remains answers – are we alone in the universe?
To advance astronomy to great heights and to possibly find the answer to the question about presence of alien species, scientists at Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) have proposed development and commissioning of a super-Hubble high definition space telescope (HDST) that provides a view the universe with five times greater sharpness than Hubble and is as much as 100 times more sensitivity than Hubble to extraordinarily faint starlight.
A new study issued by AURA scientists describes a visionary, innovative, and revolutionary path forward to answering questions about space, aliens among other things that are considered game-changers in our understanding of our place in the cosmos.
“When we imagine the landscape of astronomy in the decade of 2030, we realize it is at last within our grasp to make a monumental discovery that will change mankind forever. We hope to learn whether or not we are alone in the universe,” said AURA President Matt Mountain.
Though the James Webb Space Telescope’s mission, which is planned for a 2018 launch, will provide a view of space that is comparatively much better than that provided by Hubble space telescope, AURA has already started working on a new space telescope by bringing together a team of research scientists, astronomers, and technologists to assess a future space observatory that can significantly advance our understanding of the origin and evolution of the cosmos and whether extraterrestrial life is an integral part of cosmic history.
The powerful capabilities of the new telescope would allow the observatory to look for signs of life on an estimated several dozen Earth-like planets in our stellar neighborhood. It could provide the first observational evidence for life beyond Earth.
AURA hasn’t detailed specifics of the HDST in the report, but has suggested that it should be at least 12 meters (39 feet) across to conduct a robust survey of nearby habitable planets. This would be accomplished by combining up to 54 mirror segments together to form a giant aperture. The construction of the Webb telescope’s 18-mirror mosaic provides an important engineering pathway to demonstrating proof-of-concept for this type of space observatory architecture.
The report also proposes that the HDST be located at the Sun-Earth Lagrange 2 point, a gravitationally stable “parking lot” in space located 1 million miles from Earth. The telescope would have a suite of instruments: cameras, spectrographs, and a coronagraph for blocking out a star’s blinding glare so that any dim, accompanying planets can be directly imaged. The construction would be modular so that astronauts or robots could swap out instruments and other subsystems. As with Hubble, this would ensure an operational lifetime spanning decades.
The motive for the HDST is driven in part by the discoveries of NASA’s prolific planet hunter, the Kepler space observatory. Kepler’s discovery of over 1,000 confirmed exoplanets provides a statistical database that predict Earth-like worlds should be common in our galaxy, and hence nearby to us and within observational reach of the HDST.
The report adds that a 12-meter-diameter space telescope outfitted with a coronagraph could look for planets around an estimated 600 stars within 100 light-years of Earth. The Kepler statistics predict that 10 percent of nearby stars would host Earth-sized planets within the habitable zones of their stars, where temperatures are optimum for life, as we know it.
The HDST would spectroscopically characterize the atmospheres of these planets. The abundance of water vapor, oxygen, methane, and other organic compounds in the atmosphere could be evidence of an active biosphere on the surface of a planet.
The super-telescope’s UV sensitivity would be used to map the distribution of hot gases far outside the perimeter of galaxies. This would show the structure of the so-called “cosmic web” that galaxies are embedded inside, and how chemically enriched gases flow in and out of a galaxy to fuel star formation.
The HDST’s unexcelled sharpness at ultraviolet and optical wavelengths would allow astronomers to see the stellar and nebulous contents of galaxies billions of light-years away with the same crispness that Hubble sees inside galaxies just tens of millions of light-years away. The HDST could pick out stars like our Sun located 30 million light-years away! A sharp view of visible contents of the entire universe would immediately become accessible to us via this super-Hubble’s “high-definition” vision.
Within our own solar system, HDST would provide images of weather and surfaces on the outer planets and their moons far beyond today’s capabilities. HDST would also provide detailed data on the interaction of each of the outer planets with the solar wind and give planetary scientists the ability to search for remote, hidden members of our solar system ranging in size from dwarf planets to ice giants like Neptune.
Though such a telescope is envisioned for the 2030s, it is not too early to start planning the science needs and technological requirements. Planning for the Hubble Space Telescope began in the 1970s, two decades before its launch. In addition, concept studies for the Webb telescope began two decades ago.
The HDST is needed to complement the powerful capabilities of a new generation of ground-based telescopes. Planned for the early 2020s are behemoth visible-infrared observatories, such as the Thirty Meter Telescope, the 39-meter European Extremely Large Telescope, and a planned Giant Magellan Telescope. Already in operation is the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in northern Chile.
The HDST would be able to study extremely faint objects that are 10 to 20 times dimmer than anything that could be seen from the ground with the planned large, ground-based telescopes. It could also observe ultraviolet wavelengths that are blocked by Earth’s atmosphere. The large ground-based telescopes, in turn, would be as good or better than HDST for measuring the spectra of objects. The HDST would have comparable clarity at UV/optical wavelengths as the giant ground-based telescopes get in the near infrared and as ALMA gets at millimeter wavelengths. This would allow astronomers to obtain incredibly clear views of the cosmos over a very broad electromagnetic spectral range.
“The monumental endeavor of building the HDST is going to take a continuing partnership between NASA, science, technology, and U.S. and international space missions to build the next bridge to humanity’s future,” Mountain said.
Let’s get cracking folks. This could only be a good thing for humanity. The images from Hubble have been spectacular to say the least. Hope I’m still alive when the first images start rolling in.