NASA researches giant pinhole camera to spot distant planets

Posted on Sunday, October 03 2004 @ 12:56:26 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck

A common science experiment for young kids is to build a pinhole camera. Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder think NASA should build a gigantic one in space and use it to find planets orbiting other stars. The "New Worlds Imager" would be a football field-sized opaque light shade with a small opening right at the centre to let light through. A detector spacecraft would sit thousands of kilometres back and collect the light that comes through the opening. The shade would block the light from the star and let astronomers detect planets orbiting it. The proposal was one of 12 advanced concepts recently selected for further study by NASA.

More info at Universe Today

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NASA researches giant pinhole camera to spot distant planets