Two decades after the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA first proposed a plan to launch a space-based flotilla of 1.5-meter telescopes capable of honing in exoearth biosignatures, we’re left ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. As the largest and most complicated human-made contraption ever ...

Space-borne nulling interferometers have long been considered as the best option for searching and characterizing extra-solar planets located in the habitable zone of their parent stars. Solutions for ...

Scientists have uncovered a new technology that could take searching the vast reaches of space for extraterrestrial life a speedier process. It's called nulling interferometry, and it will give the ...

A new study from the Keck Interferometer, a former NASA project that combined the power of the twin W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, has brought exciting news to planet ...

The success of one of the most impressive space missions ever planned depends on Europe's optics community solving some extremely difficult engineering problems. Nadya Anscombe looks at the challenges ...

This photo shows an aerial view of the observing platform on the top of Paranal mountain (from late 1999), with the four enclosures for the 8.2-m Unit Telescopes (UTs) and various installations for ...

Artist’s impression of the LIFE space mission concept consisting of 4 collector spacecraft and 1 beam combiner spacecraft. The spacecraft fly in formation and are separated by tens to hundreds of ...

Internet traffic jams may become history if ESA succeeds in developing the technology to see nearby Earth-sized planets. Why? Looking at new ways to detect planets, instead of bulky mirrors and lenses ...

A new study from the Keck Interferometer, a former NASA project that combined the power of the twin W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, has brought exciting news to planet ...