Up Next
Back to Show
PBS Space Time
The Real Possibility of Mapping Alien Planets!
Season 8
Episode 29
This is the craziest proposal for an astrophysics mission that has a good chance of actually happening. A train of spacecraft sailing the sun’s light to a magical point out there in space where the Sun’s own gravity turns it into a gigantic lens. What could such a solar-system-sized telescope do? Pretty much anything. But definitely map the surfaces of alien worlds.
Sign up now for inspiring and thought-provoking media delivered straight to your inbox.
Support Provided By
18:50
Does this also explain why there are no aliens?
16:58
Quantum energy teleportation may be as close as we get to transporter beams. But how close is that?
14:50
Why is there any matter in the universe? A new antimatter breakthrough at LHC holds clues.
16:30
There’s an extremely good chance that Earth once did have a ring system.
17:23
How is it possible to tell if a space rock will one day collide with the Earth?
15:58
Did you know that many of us have up to 4% neanderthal DNA?
16:35
What if the Big Bang was just an endless cycle?
19:39
Why are billions suddenly being pumped into fusion startups?
16:36
The universe should've collapsed after the Big Bang, but a light Higgs boson let us exist.
14:30
Maybe dark energy doesn't exist?
18:32
Dark matter has eluded us for many decades but we may be able to discover more now.
15:35
What do you get if you combine something that’s infinitely massive and negative infinitely massive?