The REAL Possibility of Mapping Alien Planets!

[@iainballas]

5:59 I think we can ALL agree that we'd LOVE a video about your research in particular. Hearing something from an expert that they themselves are passionate about is one of the most feel-good learning opportunities one can get. I work in a hotel, and I can say for certainty that everyone who puts their passion into something has some amazing things to say about it. One of our guys literally unclogs industrial sized drains for a living. I could have listened to him go on and on about pipes and valves and sludge all day long, he was so enthused by it it was infectious!

[@TristanCleveland]

Agreed.

[@jeffbenton6183]

Especially since decluttering Einstein rings is such a cool and important technique for this and other applications. Astronomers see older galaxies behind younger galaxies all the time using microlensing, so understanding how scientists actually manage to study those would be really cool. (It's also worth mentioning that the Nancy Grace Roman telescope will be using microlensing to find previously undiscovered exoplanets after it launches in 2027).

[@xanderunderwoods3363]

I so agree to this!

[@novacat9974]

+

[@Braindead_Ace]

Please do a video talking about your own research. I'm certain I speak for the community of spacetime viewers when I say we'd be thrilled to learn what far reaches of astrophysics you chose to pursue yourself!

[@tommymclaughlin-artist]

Having my mind re-blown by PBS Space Time every week is always the highlight of my week.

[@CraigH999]

My mind has been blown so many times by this channel I'm shocked that there is still enough brain matter in my skull to continue having it blown week after week

[@fireking99]

Samesies

[@tommymclaughlin-artist]

@@CraigH999 ☝THIS.

[@osmosisjones4912]

How about gravitational slingshots

[@nobreakingthepickle3452]

Same

[@DanHarkless_Halloween_YTPs_etc]

Nice to have an episode that doesn't hurt my brain to comprehend! 😁 And super-amazing news; slightly shocked I've never heard of this tech being discussed before. Stellar episode, Matt et al.

[@omnijack]

"Locus of Focus Hocus Pocus" is hereby a thing, as it should have always been. And so it is.

[@Barmens]

She sales see shells. :D

[@CarFreeSegnitz]

@@Barmens *she sells sea shells

[@overthehilldill3626]

@@CarFreeSegnitz she sails sea shells.

[@bearcubdaycare]

Just tell them that you need the LFHP to better understand the universe, without explaining the acronym, and they'll assume it's another collider and give you a few billion.

[@andrewkepert923]

Are we getting LFHP merch?

[@gooflydo]

I love matt's voice. He could be reading a 1985 telephone book and I would find it relaxing and yet pay attention. I seriously think he should do some voice acting for Audio books.

[@michaelblair5146]

This is incredible, I have chills. Absolutely genius application of machine learning to refine the sample set of images each satellite sends.

[@osmosisjones4912]

I say take into account potential moons or rings when calculating an exoplanet's mass but distance of moon from planet and moon might create the image of higher mass .but that mass would have a certain direction ..and that might be how to detect exomoons.. if mas has a certain direction

[@rolflandale2565]

To spectate an interstellar station/flag ships/colonize vessels etc. In deep distance space, one would require a team to spectate a fast-foward recording. That could take up hundreds of (humans) analysis without an AI. Light slops events in time. As it's own gravitational element size has polarity, in alignment gathers & attempts to become in eons duriation, eventually future complex matter & mass celestial chem-life entities someday. From mere particals, to moans, ions, bulk gas, dust, clouds, astroiods, bolder, moons, planets, gas giants etc.

[@owenelmburg6362]

Another idea is to use the light refracted by the earths atmosphere. It would be a nice stepping stone between now and the sun telescope.

[@ПётрБ-с2ц]

the learning mentioned at 12:22 won't be "machine learning" which is what simulated neuron networks are called

[@kvdrr]

200 likes on such a stupid comment, yikes

[@concrete_dog]

This is... WOW! I never imagined something like this could be possible, not just theoretically, but also practically. That's awesome.

[@DanHarkless_Halloween_YTPs_etc]

"That's the trouble with _ye!"_

[@concrete_dog]

I WANT A STEAK

[@takeshikovacs8756]

that's awsap

[@vectoralphaSec]

Of course the only problem is money. Lets just hope this is funded well enough to make it happen.

[@concrete_dog]

@@vectoralphaSec Yeah it is pretty expensive. As cool as projects like these could be, I'd much rather we invest money into protecting our own planet first. Cause if we don't, we will definitely never be able to build a solar telescope like this.

[@jcarlile8279]

Damn!! I had always hoped something like was possible. To hear that it is not only possible but actively being worked on is beyond my wildest dreams.

[@astraw13]

I know! I stopped everything I was doing to hang on every word of this episode! So amazing and exciting!

[@osmosisjones4912]

How about gravitational slingshots instead of solar sales

[@LuisSierra42]

Also Locus of Focus Hocus Pocus is a cute name

[@petersage5157]

@@osmosisjones4912 A slingshot maneuver is part of the proposal; remember the part about bringing the craft within a quarter of Mercury's orbit? By the way, pretty much every NASA mission up to now has gotten by using Newtonian mechanics, but since we needed General Relativity to explain the orbital procession of Mercury, going that close to the sun means we'll need to plot the crafts' courses using GR.

[@smellthel]

Sunvane is one of the coolest names for anything I’ve seen

[@AyatollahofRocknRola]

Dr. O'Dowd, like a true physicist it truly amazes me how well you can take complex subject matter and communicate it with simplicity and brevity. I truly appreciate how well you chose your wording and I know how much time that much take you and your team. Thank you for this channel.

[@Anthus.]

Dude, your name, or the pseudonym you're using as your YT identity (Ayatollah of Rock 'n Rolla) is very cool. 👍🏻

[@vincewilson1]

The late Dr. Carl Sagan used to do that very well back in the twentieth century. I used to watch him in his COSMOS series. Too bad, he died in the late '90s.

[@jc.1191]

@@Anthus. It is 🤘

[@cpt_bill366]

@@vincewilson1 Sagan didn't know anything about brevity. And what did he contribute to science besides communicating it to the masses? Hawking did more, and only barely.

[@realMarkFoster]

Get off his nuts…😂

[@schoolaccount50yearsago47]

_Please happen in my lifetime, please happen in my lifetime, please happen in my lifetime._

[@eier5472]

I love the background music in lots of PBS Digital Studios videos, and I'd love even more if you put the sources for them in the description. Royalty-free music tracks can be insanely hard to find.

[@jimmyjasi-anti-descartes7088]

Could you please add new Merch something with Spooky Action Please? To honor Anton Zeilingers discoveries of Non-locality ! And well deserved Nobel Prize Please

[@nachoboy3503]

+1

[@MrMarvelMatt]

glad I'm not the only one who's thought this!

[@douglasharley2440]

maybe they license the music? it's quite good.

[@schokolade1735]

I was also looking for it the other day. Nice, that there is a general interest.

[@kraftwels]

This sounds too good to be true. If i actually see this kind of scientific archievement in my lifetime, i will cry. But i won't get my hopes up. This sounds insanely difficult

[@alansmithee419]

Had a dream a while ago where I saw a news story come on the TV saying we'd found life on another planet and then showed images of the surface of the planet showing life. Woke up thinking "I really should've noticed that was a dream, it's obviously impossible to image exoplanets like that." O_O

[@osmosisjones4912]

I think gravitational slingshots might be more feasible . In long run . Building infostructure for gravitational slingshots would take centuries. .. but in long run

[@charlethemagne5466]

​@@osmosisjones4912 gravitational slingshots need a nearby object with a lot of mass, that might be enough for travelling the solar system but it'll be useless for interstellar space that lacks large gravity wells.

[@vaka6025]

I really hope we hear more from Matt on the reconstructing techniques to account for gravitational lensing that he works on! It sounds fascinating.

[@louissivo9660]

Love your content and especially this video. What an amazing event this would be to see detailed images of alien worlds. As I'm 63 this is something where I might see the mission begin, but I won't see the first results. Sad, but I'd be happy for those that come afterwards, other fans will get to enjoy what this generation created. I've enjoyed the fruits of those that came before.

[@Nameless742]

This was a great episode. Imagining a planet with city lights - the world would be shaken.

[@agiar2000]

"It's never aliens until it's aliens." I wonder if the most likely explanation for night-time lights on the surface could be stable volcanic vents? Even so, yes, it would be amazing to get clues like that.

[@Demonrifts]

@@agiar2000 Only if they're incredibly large vents or a lot of smaller vents in high concentrations. If that were the case, we would likely be able to detect the chemicals they release into the atmosphere with radio spectroscopy.

[@Nameless742]

@@hyperduality2838 I’ll take that on board.

[@jorriffhdhtrsegg]

@@agiar2000 different spectroscopy i guess. Artificial lights being the sodium, tungsten, flourescent, LED (and sure, a lot more, but aliens would have different elements? Probably, i mean considering that they may see in a different part of the EM spectrum (or even same senses). but seems doubtful they'd melt rock to do it.

[@Nameless742]

@@hyperduality2838 Yes the famous Janus hole named after Dr Hugh Janus. The Hugh Janus holes are famously brown in colour and rich in both methane and hydrogen gasses as well as the 8 states of fecal matter: solid liquid lumpy nutty floaty sinky bloody and putrid.

[@macronencer]

I can't remember ever seeing this many brilliant ideas packed into one space project before. Absolutely breathtaking! I'm 57, so I'll probably have to be quite lucky to see a mapped planet one day, but my fingers are firmly crossed.

[@letMeSayThatInIrish]

I love this idea, especially the possible dual use of the sail as a mirror and at the same time the dual use of the sun as both thruster and lens.

[@LuisSierra42]

Hope science still survives after WWIII

[@AndrasMihalyi]

World wars tend to accelerate science...

[@Bretoniac]

For me, usually PBS just expands what I already know, but this, genuinely blew my mind.

[@sirdart6915]

I honestly can’t believe that what many thought was a crazy idea is actually making it into an actual concept to reality! Very impressive to even think of this as possible, let alone feasible in our near future!

[@HeyImLucious]

"our near future" probably a stretch. I doubt there will be any *real* breakthroughs in the next 100 years. But, humanity is on the track to colonize the galaxy and that's enough reason to be hyped.

[@sirdart6915]

@@HeyImLucious Honestly I think the technology is nearly there. Maybe 30 years to take this from concept to research and design, prototype, testing, then launch, but I still consider that near future. The past few months I have heard from a number of these KZbin channels talk about this concept, but I do think this is something plausible today with just a little more innovation!

[@arandom1024]

@@sirdart6915 for me it's both exciting and heartbreaking because I think about how far we could be if we spent more time and money on these type of endeavors, as opposed to wars and propping up so many useless bureaucracies within government.

[@rbobert18]

I hate this entire thread

[@LoLaSn]

@@HeyImLucious The galaxy? I think not, very close-by star systems perhaps, but certainly nothing more

[@PeterGaunt]

'Our lifetime' depends on how old you are. I'd love to see this happen but unless I live to way, way over 120 years I'm not likely to. Best of luck with this! Make it happen!

[@Aztesticals]

Gotta go volunteer to let a mad grad student treat you with telomerase and expiremental gene insertions from hydras. Make you geneticly immortal and deage you back to 30ish. Or you might just get cancer. We arnt quite ready for it yet

[@mr.mercury4247]

I'm only 20 years old and I'll still be an old man by the time this mission gets real images lol.

[@Aztesticals]

@jables3974 AZ long as they don't keep having kids. We would have to make voluntered chemical castration part of the deal. Like as long as you are immortal you don't reproduce. But you can once you decide to age again

[@Aztesticals]

@jables3974 yeah. And I hope the castrate part didn't make you think of like eugenics or anything. I've gotten reported for discussing this before. So I'm just saying that those asking to be immortal would also be saying that I don't want kids for a few hundred years

[@Aztesticals]

@jables3974 I'm actually very excited for it. I just think that many politicians will freak out about overpopulation so having an answer even if not great as long as it is voluntary it should help

[@RafitoOoO]

It's always cool how you find new ways to fit Space Time at the end lol.

[@dannybrown5744]

Real good information with imaginative conjecture... I love it. We won't get anything done without this kind of thinking.

[@c9brown]

The word "spacetime" on this channel is like the ultimate endpoint of a 4D geodesic. You may orbit some various topics for a while, dancing here and there but you know that inevitably your path inexorably leads to "spacetime".

[@bearcubdaycare]

I was wondering how he'd end with that in this episode, but then of course it was the gravitational lensing aspect, which is so central to the idea.

[@jackback70]

You can bring everything back to spacetime, since it's basically existance itself

[@persona2grata]

This is one of the most amazing concepts I've ever heard. The locus of focus hocus pocus SHOULD be the name for this because it sounds like magic! Absolutely incredible.

[@chasefrost1401]

This is mind blowing, I hope we'll get to see this sooner than later, just thinking about "Alien civilization detected xxxx light-years away" but granted we'd be seeing what used to be the civilization as it was. But still, this is such an exciting prospect.

[@MijinLaw]

I think for the planets we'd be imaging we'd be seeing them as they were merely decades ago from our perspective

[@MijinLaw]

@@MrHurricaneFloyd Exactly. AIUI, the first planets we'd be looking at would be around the nearest stars.

[@rolflandale2565]

The SLGS technique, might as well be 7:03 insecta-eye on a field of astro belt rock orbit/surface. if your going to travel THAT far of a mono technique.

[@chasefrost1401]

@@MijinLaw you're right for the closest ones. That would've be a lot cooler, but imagine looking at an exoplanet that's 1000 light-years away, like live archeology

[@gravelpit5680]

This is badass. PBS spacetime always does great

[@csleuthone6385]

It would be wonderful to realize such resolutions Matt. This podcast is one of my favorites. Thanks for you and your colleagues great work.

[@SyncJr]

These are my some of my favourite bed time videos. These and ‘cool worlds’ and Anton petrov

[@krss6256]

Great episode! I hope to see photos of another exoplanet taken like that in my lifetime!

[@1pcfred]

30 years it well outside my reasonable life expectancy. I ain't never going to see 88. I know some have lived to be older than that. But I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be one of them myself. No one in my family has ever lived that long. My Uncle Joe made it to 84. That was extraordinary. Most of us tend to die in our late 70s.

[@louissivo9660]

@@1pcfred I'm 63, so I won't see the results either. But as we've enjoyed the results of work started decades ago, I hope this happens for the next generation of astronomy fans. This would be mind blowing for us to be able to achieve this level of mapping.

[@1pcfred]

@@louissivo9660 I think it's technically just a bit out of our capabilities at the moment. We don't really have much better than what we used on the Voyager missions and it's over at a fraction of the distance. So it's demonstrably beyond us. Developing tech that's a few times better than what we have is a difficult thing to do too.

[@elongatedmusk3132]

I have a confession & an apology. I've been watching these late as I fall asleep & been forgetting to hit the like button. I'll do that in advance from now on because every single video is amazing. Thanks for the hard work, we all appreciate it! ✌️

[@metallicamadsam]

This was by far one of the most mind blowing videos you guys have ever produced. Be interesting to see how they figure out the solar sail material and orientation

[@metallicamadsam]

@@hyperduality2838 word sauce?

[@metallicamadsam]

@@hyperduality2838 sexy word sauce

[@Ruminations09]

This is legitimately one of the coolest videos on this channel. I had no idea that something like this was anywhere CLOSE to being feasible yet. If you had asked me for an estimate on how long it would be before missions like this would be possible, I would have said something like 100 years from now.

[@AndyD25]

Can't wait to try this escape maneuver in Kerbal Space Program 2 :D

[@saadqazi3833]

This is one of the most incredible... things I've ever heard period.

[@solsystem1342]

Well, I have a new thing to be hyped for I guess. Hope we'll see this within my lifetime because I'd love to work with mapping exoplanets!

[@tubularap]

3:34 - I am all concentrated on the subject, with apparently a stiff jaw, when Matt with his "Locus of Focus Hocus Pocus" joke cracks me into a universe-wide grin. Thank you !!

[@lunafoxfire]

That's incredible. I wonder if the mission will ever actually happen though. Sadly it just makes me think of Project Orion and how we could, starting right now, have a probe at alpha centauri within 50 years.

[@paolofaviano1]

I would really love an episode where you explain this reconstruction technique :)

[@ProfessorBeautiful]

My guess is that it bears a strong family resemblance to the reconstruction of internal anatomy form CT scans and the like. It's an "inverse problem".

[@xb70valkyriech]

I've also heard about a similar concept, using the atmosphere of the earth (or another planet's atmosphere) as a giant refractive lens. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these as well.

[@jasonhallneuroverse]

I've been fascinated by this concept for a while! especially given the difficulty of interstellar travel. If we take this idea to an extreme extent, do you think the future of space exploration will focus on scanning/mapping celestial worlds with ever-increasing detail and viewing them here on earth with our computers and VR? I.e. bringing space to us rather than us having to traverse space.

[@1.4142]

I like how you covered details such as the coronagraph and spiraling maneuver.

[@huyked]

The brainpower/smarts, and creativity of ones that dream these things up if crazy and baffling, but amazingly inspiring.

[@williammarx7884]

Another fantastic episode Matt. Fascinating to hear a bit about your specialty

[@mr.mercury4247]

I will be as old as my father by the time this mission gets it's first image, and that'd be if it launched within 7 years from right now. I will be 60+ by the time this mission realistically gets it's 1st image, but hey at least I will be able to buy one of those desk globes you're talking about.

[@joshyoung1440]

*its *its

[@chelmano0]

You're assuming a lot of things here. Given the condition and corruption in healthcare, you'd be lucky if you survive till 60.

[@MrAlyxandyr]

I can only imagine the absolute insane telescopic wonders we could see by creating warp bubbles specifically for the purpose of interstellar photography - Place an array of these small warped bubbles out in the same region where JWST is, for the same purposes of clarity/viewpoint, and be able to choose which light and where the focal is; depending on how big and intense the warp might be. All the more reason for the Alcubierre and other warp-drive research to continue!

[@jorriffhdhtrsegg]

If we do alcubierre we may need to convert some of the planets to pure energy on the way😄

[@MrAlyxandyr]

@@hyperduality2838 Symmetries are very important indeed my friend. Though not all are created equal and some symmetries are broken! Perhaps a marathon of PBS SpaceTime's videos on the topic is something for you to enjoy!

[@himynameis3664]

While this does sound pretty complicated it also sounds pretty doable. I would be so excited to hear this getting the go ahead

[@rseed42]

Wow, i remember you did a poll regarding topics some time ago. This was exactly my suggestion. Great job!

[@fugslayernominee1397]

Really hope we get to see this happen in our lifetime.

[@feandil666]

Amazing... never thought about that but it makes much sense, I think this would be the most mind blowing images ever produced by science for regular folks

[@1pcfred]

I'm sorry but we simply cannot afford to do it. We have the borders of foreign countries to defend. Maybe China can foot the bill?

[@MrPeterPanos]

Another fantastic video, thank you Matt & PBS Space Time !

[@SirDersthe3rd]

what a wild episode these teams sound committed 😅 exo geographer sounds like a very nice job... it would be cool to see these telescopes have the ability to stop in the right spot probably some way to do it

[@osmosisjones4912]

Instead of solar sales I would try gravitational slingshots . Maybe build space infostructure for gravitational slingshots.

[@danieljensen2626]

@@osmosisjones4912 Gravity assists/slingshots are exactly how the Voyager probes got up to their current speed. It's more complicated and speed is slowly built up over time, so it actually makes things take longer, just saves fuel. It might be possible to do one quickly but it's not so much a matter of setting up as it is a matter of waiting for the planets to be in the right alignment, which could take hundreds of years depending on what conditions you're looking for. As for stopping at the point, unless we invent some magic rocket engine that's not really possible if we also want it to get there any kind of quickly.

[@kindlin]

@@osmosisjones4912 The video says that they intend for each Pearl to use the largest gravity slingshot of them all, the sun. You need something that large to send something out that far at any reasonable speed. They COULD pull a JWST and nudge the Pearl right into the best spot, but that would take 10x longer travel time (or longer), so those won't be the first missions sent.

[@osmosisjones4912]

@@kindlin build things large

[@kindlin]

@@osmosisjones4912 Go big or go home? Well they're building small to go far from home.

[@xanderunderwoods3363]

This might be one of my favorite episodes yet! So Awesome!

[@grayaj23]

This is exciting to hear about. And I think it's worth doing even if it would take decades and multiple iterations to get good results. Just the part about getting solar sails to accelerate to those speeds is worth doing if only to say "we did it".

[@grayaj23]

@@hyperduality2838 hashtag #putthebongdowndude

[@Tinil0]

This is one of the few astronomy videos that STILL blows my mind! The algorithm for deconvolution is so far beyond what I would've expected that it beggars belief in the best of ways.

[@adrianhernandez-porragas7676]

The deadpan delivery is amazing, you'd never know there was a joke there.

[@nicolaiveliki1409]

great! I'm guessing if this goes forward, they're not going to wait 25-30 years between missions, but send many missions in short succession. Will then the string of pearls also work as a relay chain to transmit images back to earth with a lot lower sending power requirements? Will there be a special networking stack developed for this kind of communication, or is this already worked out for other missions?

[@-_James_-]

Protocols and standards for an Interplanetary Internet are already being developed and tested.

[@1pcfred]

Yeah who's going to pay for all of this? You didn't believe this joker when he said it was going to be cheap, did you? That's what they said about the James Webb telescope. Then it went over 10 billion dollars over budget. So not so cheap after all. We simply cannot afford to do everything regardless of how the democrats behave. They just bought themselves 260 million dollars worth of radiation sickness pills too. Which isn't as many pills as you may think it is. It's about $1,000 a dose. So no, you're not getting one. It is only for the elites.

[@MirorR3fl3ction]

would the SGLF be useful for interstellar communications relays? presumably the lensing would apply to radio waves as well, and the amplification of the SGLF would make it easier to pick up radio communications from other star systems, which can then be boosted back to Earth/home planet

[@metallicamadsam]

I commented on this because I’m not sure in the answer. But I’m sure they already use lensing to amplify radio signals. But maybe they can combine a mission to include instruments to detect multiple wave lengths. But I’m not sure how this could effect the sglf

[@BuffaloMotivated]

YESTERDAY, I posted questions abt this exact topic on multiple JWST channels. Im taking a hand in this as if they saw my messages or I put it out in the Universe

[@Mn-yh2bp]

If telescopes were placed at each of the earth sun Lagrange points would it be possible to use interferometry to turn them in to 1 giant telescope or would that effectiveness of interferometry degrade at that scale? Also if that scale is too large to be effective would earth moon Lagrange points be better?

[@pufthemajicdragon]

HOLY COW this got me SO EXCITED! What a BRILLIANT and clever solution! SO COOOOOL!

[@Profezzorn]

Is this possible to do on a smaller scale? Like by using the moon, mars, or jupiter as a lens?

[@kkrolik2106]

You can use Earth Atmosphere as Lens but image will be much blurrier. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_atmospheric_lens

[@gessie]

From a lay perspective: The sun's "wobbling problem" would become a "planet shooting through space at absurd speeds problem", which is especially problematic if the satellite train option is chosen.

[@TDLightt]

What an amazing idea. I hope I'm around to see this happen

[@charlesshamseldin9555]

I feel like a little kid watching this. Thank you for piercing the darkness that surrounds us

[@samwiley331]

I think this is my all time favorite KZbin video

[@vivianriver6450]

I have nothing to add. This is best of PBS Spacetime

[@scottdorfler2551]

I've been waiting for Space-time to cover this mission. Launchpad Astronomy did a deep dive, almost an hour long episode about this mission two years ago. Fraser Cain covered it a few months back another deep dive. I'm hoping NASA pulls the trigger on this one.

[@syedaliehsan]

He's developed crazy eyes over the years. Videos must be taking their toll

[@tpog1]

Important correction: In fact we don‘t know if pi says “lol noobs” infinite times because while we have found a proof that pi is irrational, we still don‘t know whether it is normal. Indeed, I couldn‘t find the sequence “767976327879796683” (which is “LOL NOOBS” in ASCII) even once among the digits we know so far.

[@happmacdonald]

Did a search to find this comment. Upboat. Words matter, Matt! xD

[@TheAlondane]

That sounds like it would be really hard to do. I'm glad that the people working on this will no doubt be much smarter than me.

[@wolvenar]

I'm definitely waiting impatiently for a solar system wide VLA

[@davidtal523]

i really like that this episode is less wierd mathy, that i cant possibly understand, and still interesting in physics and astrophsyics that i Can kinda understand... as a layman.

[@leodietzsanz9918]

You mentioned how we used VLBI to image M87 and Saggitarius A*. I wonder if, by placing multiple telescopes in orbit around the sun you could achieve the angular resolution of a telescope the size of that orbit. The main problem would be the timing of it all, I suppose.

[@grayaj23]

it is mind-blowing to imagine devices several hundred AU apart being synchronized well enough for it to work, but heck.. if they're already going to be out there doing the other thing, it's probably worth at least trying to get the timing down.

[@zeuslgn]

As I get older and continue to watch this show, I've noticed more and more often that the most exciting and fascinating scientific missions proposed for the future more and more often end in a single, constant realization: "Oh. I'll be long dead by then." Then I briefly wonder if I should finish the episode as my interest plummets. It hasn't stopped me yet but it's more and more noticeable.

[@JoshWiniberg]

I believe credit goes to Prof David Kipping for coming up with this concept. He outlined the idea, which he called the Terrascope, on his Cool Worlds channel a couple of years ago. It's such an ingenious idea, I love it!

[@jeffbenton6183]

The "Terrascope" was actually a modification of the idea. Instead of using the gravity of the Sun (due to the impracticality of the idea), he proposed using the atmosphere of the Earth. The space telescope could be much closer to Earth and it would therefore be much easier to get started on that mission. He also posited that a spacecraft orbiting Jupiter from just the right distance, could use the Jovian atmosphere to magnify its radio transmissions. You're right that the Terrascope is Dr. Kipping's idea, but the idea discussed in this video (let's call it "the Solarscope") is decades older than that.

[@JoshWiniberg]

@@jeffbenton6183 I stand corrected. Thanks!

[@nathankristofik5783]

Einstein actually proposed this originally and was the one who calculated the 550 au distance needed. Now that's just the base concept not the sat design.

[@fenz1]

@@nathankristofik5783 incredible!

[@Daniel-Strain]

I can't even imagine the complexity of the math involved in getting all those probes to move like that - much less the re-assembling of an image from all that scattered light. That we can even seriously consider such a project is amazing.

[@Creadeyh]

That's an awesome idea. However you didn't mention the issue of communication (mainly image download). We're already having trouble distinguishing the Voyagers' signals from noise which results in very low transfer rates. If you need the pearls to be low mass, that doesn't leave much for a big enough antenna and/or signal power

[@pantheis]

If we're launching multiple strings of them, they could be used to relay the data back far enough to be in range of the DSN. We could also launch a dedicated relay mission to the outer solar system to provide a nuclear powered DSN relay node to assist. There are options.

[@Creadeyh]

@@pantheis Fair enough. That's why I'm not the one thinking about those solutions 😅

[@thelaw300]

This mission would be absolutely amazing. Great presentation!

[@alexolas1246]

i remember from “cool worlds”’s channel, a lesser version of this concept - a “terrascope”, using the earth as a lens rather than the sun. the mechanism of its focus is not gravity, but refraction of light as it passes through earth’s upper atmosphere. by his calculations, the minimum distance from earth is also quite modest - just within the orbit of the moon. what do you think of this concept?

[@jamismiscreant7514]

whats the benifit of using lensing vs just putting an array of satellites in orbit

[@dragonmudd]

One notable difference between gravitational lensing and refractive lensing is that refractive lensing has something called "chromatic aberration." Basically, light of different wavelengths bends different amounts when it's being refracted through a material like the atmosphere. But when it's being bent by gravity, all the different wavelengths curve equally. This is what you get from a prism or from raindrops creating a rainbow: the different colors will spread out form each other. Obviously it's not impossible to correct for, but it is an extra hurdle.

[@Richmondstein]

This is legit the coolest thing I’ve ever heard and we need to fund it now.

[@efovex]

This is the most insane plan I've ever heard. It really sounds damn near impossible to pull off, with so many individual points of failure. Still, now I'm excited for it to be done.

[@gert-janbonnema]

People probably told the Wright brothers exactly the same.

[@DreamChaserEiRi]

You guys have an impressive Universe to play with :)

[@alison4316]

I hope I'm not the only one who periodically has to rewind these videos to rehear some of the ideas he explains.

[@bvllseye4068]

You're a womyn, that's why you have to rewind everytime

[@beauw9454]

Yeah, I do that all the time too :P

[@alansmithee419]

For some videos I'd say if you don't have to rewind you're not thinking hard enough (or you're already intimately familiar with the subject).

[@mattandcats746]

The only times I don’t rewind is when I am either letting his voice lull me to sleep, or realized I’m just too far out of my depth to understand even if I do rewind.

[@jackback70]

imagine having adhd, I have to do it with every video xD

[@tonyduncan9852]

Not within my lifetime, but what a wonderful prospect! Cheers.

[@andybeans5790]

LFHP got me good 😂

[@Kirkaiya]

Genuinely cool. I had talked to people about using a distributed set of satellites in solar orbit to image exoplanets, but it never occurred to me that we could use the sun's gravitational field - I didn't realize the sun could produce such a useful lensing effect. I only wish I could live long enough to see the results of a system like this.

[@kaitlyn__L]

This is making me wonder if Star Trek’s magic sensors are actually largely just constantly measuring lensing from every star they pass by, and while going into systems. You could imagine years of automatic deconvolution, assembled from all sorts of angles and times across the galaxy, allowing for all those distant views of planets on their maps.

[@RedRocket4000]

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magi" Clarke Law. As Jules Verne came up with a bomb with an atomic size blast for his Sci Fi way before Relativity allowed man to actually make one Star Trek is allowed to speculate past our current knowledge of physics. Although I'm quite certain Star Trek got lots of it's ideas from Science speculation like Warp Drive even if many can't find one now after all they speculated it would require truly huge amounts of energy to run a Warp drive requiring huge amounts of anti matter to matter combination. And our current ideas on Warp Drive acknolage it takes tons of energy. I'm certain in part you're one to one way at least for long range data base to start with. But a ton of stuff Trek does requires faster than light sensors after all you need to detect enemy activity many light years away currently not the many years it takes for light to get to the ship some of their longer range scans especially by Federation would take many thousands of years to arrive at light speed. Maybe opening subspace portals to do observations at range or my Sci fi idea of way faster than light dark energy fields (yes total magic sci fi)

[@ariadgaia5932]

"The locus of focus hocus pocus" LOL XD You're adorable!!

[@galaxy_brain]

Once the "string of pearls" of satellites in the LFHP is established, will they able to target different exoplanets, or are they preciesly configured to monitor only a single target? Awesome episode I love the imaging research 📝

[@Xboxiscrunchy]

They can only image a single target.

[@Mernom]

probably single target, but perhaps if there's another very close by, it can repurpose.

[@DrippiBean]

From what he said, it sounds like a new craft will have to be built for each planet that we'd want to image

[@anthillbeatseesmagaming7358]

The degree of difficulty with which Matt shoehorns in the Space Time pun is directly proportional to the awesomeness of the video.

[@franzcatch]

Would it be at all practical or effective to try to use the Earth or maybe Jupiter to do something similar but on a lower scale? Also, thanks for this fascinating and exciting idea!

[@youtubeusername1489]

I think planets are too small for the desired lensing effect for any "reasonable" distance. Cannot say for sure but i think i have watched somewhere that the sun comes very close to lower bound, in terms of mass(not the category of stars). If it goes any smaller, it will not work or will be very hard.

[@franzcatch]

@@youtubeusername1489 Good point. I was originally thinking about placing the telescope in a place a little closer to home. But I hadn't thought about how the lower gravitational field would put the focal point way farther away to be practical or useful.

[@acadiano10]

This was amazing to see the possibilities! Also great to see the solar sail visualization.

[@disputedb2764]

This sounds very plausible. I was wondering if it would be feasible to use a distant star to picture an even more distant exo planet given we (our solar system) may fall in the SGLF region of these two bodies? This could be a practical way to test without the travel time (if we have data on the star in question).

[@schmarcel4238]

You mean the LFHP

[@metallicamadsam]

While star shot seems to crazy within our life time, this seems possible

[@henrikgiese6316]

As I understand it the focal region is of a limited length in all directions. We're far, far, away from the outer edge of focal region of any other star.

[@Supernov4]

No star has a focal point that far away. The distances between stars are no joke.

[@ebenolivier2762]

What about using Jupiter as a gravitational lens? I would assume the distances needed are not that far. Yes, it would not be as powerful but it could be easier to practice.

[@Urgleflogue]

Hey Matt, I know someone working on that thing too :) Viktor Toth, and Slava Tiryushev. I help them a bit, with what I can. They already have some papers out, of which I am sure you are aware. That's an awesome project. Keep working on it :)

[@epaminon6196]

*50 years later...* "So... Yeah... The exoplanet we've tried to map for the last few decades tuned out to be a barren rock... But we've found another very promising candidate for us to study. If you'll give us 820B ¥ and another 30 years, we can get right to wo..." - _"Hmmmm. How about... No, you out-of-touch eggheads?!"_ "As you wish, President Bieber. But you're making a big mistake by not letting us do our job." _"Thirty years is too long a time for me to wait for those results. I'm already 78! Heck, we could just ask the Vulcans for one of their starmaps and be done with it. And if the long-ears don't want to share, we could still build a Cochrane probe and send it there within a decade or so."_

[@davemi00]

Another ingenious technical approach to expand astronomy 🔭

[@blaircolquhoun7780]

I hope we can go to an alien world someday.

[@darudeSandstorm.]

I suggest the game "no mans sky" with a vr headset :-)

[@blaircolquhoun7780]

@@darudeSandstorm. I don't play video games anymore. The last one I played was the Atari 2600.

[@istvansipos9940]

an episode I FULLY understand? Well, not the comments at the end, but still. I am g00d :- )

[@luudest]

How long would it take to get the pearl of satellites to the focal point?

[@ObjectsInMotion]

He said in the video at least thirty years

[@luudest]

@@ObjectsInMotion thx