The Solar Gravitational Lens will Map Exoplanets. Seriously.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN strongly recommends it as the clearest, best-illustrated explanation of the solar gravitational lens idea, and links it whenever exoplanet imaging comes up.
What it is
Explains the proposed NASA JPL plan to use the Sun as a gravitational lens, sending solar sail craft to its focal region to image an exoplanet's surface. It covers the distances involved, how imaging with the Sun would work and the mission design.
Recommended by 10 HN commenters across 9 different months, 2020 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec augusto-moura · 2020-09 · on “Why is there a normal galaxy sitting at the edge of the Universe?”
You CAN use for more than 1 target, you just need to reposition the telescope a bit. See [1], is a great great video on the subject. I can't recommend enough [1]: [this video]
Strong rec pas · 2020-09 · on “Why is there a normal galaxy sitting at the edge of the Universe?”
The whole concept is that we should launch a fleet of them every few months. Very lightweight semi-autonomous smart lightsails with some optics. The first fleet helps targeting the second, and all those who come after them. [this video] (already linked by a sibling comment, but yes, can't recommend this enough!)
Strong rec dmix · 2022-12 · on “Two temperate Earth-mass planets orbiting the nearby star GJ1002”
This is the space project that most excites me and the one I most hope we solve in my lifetime. Much more interesting than Mars (not that you can't do both). This video on gravitational lensing blew my mind [this video] What do you think the odds are of if it being done IRL?
Strong rec echelon · 2023-03 · on “”
Forget Earth gravitational lenses, let's use the sun: [this video] (The whole video is great.) This setup could resolve the surfaces of exoplanets with its ~100 billion magnification. JPL is investigating.
Strong rec echelon · 2023-05 · on “James Webb Space Telescope Reveals Fomalhaut's Disk in Unprecedented Detail”
Forget everything else, we need to build THIS : [this video] A telescope array that can use our sun's gravitational lens would enable us to resolve the surfaces of extrasolar planets. We could resolve surface features as small as 10 km across at a distance of 100 light years. JPL is actively investigating this. It's incredibly promising.
Strong rec tombh · 2024-10 · on “A solar gravitational lens will be humanity's most powerful telescope (2022)”
Christian Ready made a great video on his Youtube channel, Launch Pad Astronomy, about NASA's plans for a solar gravitational lens. It's got some great graphics and visualisations, and is accessibly narrated. I was inspired and learnt a lot of new ideas. [this video] (23 minutes)
Strong rec altharaz · 2024-10 · on “Ion engines could take us to the solar gravitational lens in less than 13 years”
There is a very high quality video about how Solar Gravitational Lens could be used to map exoplanets, and full explanations about the images reconstruction and engineering challenges: [this video]
Recommends tombh · 2022-11 · on “First active chemistry on an exoplanet revealed by Webb telescope”
I actually came across this video on HN a while back: [this video] It explains the extraordinary idea of using the sun as a gravitational lens.