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It’s Time to Build the Exoplanet Telescope

palladiummag.com · 2,110 words · saved by 1 readers

With the recent SpaceX Starship orbital flight tests, it is time to commit to building the largest physically possible space telescope. Such a telescope would peer deeper into the universe than any before it, answering fundamental questions: are we alone? What do Earth-like exoplanets around other stars look like? How did we get here? What weird stuff awaits discovery? Where is the limit on human ambition to know what is in our universe? The Monster Scope answers these questions. Monster, because of its enormous scale, grotesque in its ambition. Monster, from the Latin root meaning a revealed thing. And monster, because through it we may be able to study not just the rocks and land masses but possibly lifeforms, both monstrous and marvelous, on distant planets. When we look up into the night sky, we see thousands of stars. Most of them, visible to our weak and poorly-evolved eyes, are either exceptionally close or exceptionally bright. Along with the starlight that passes each moment t

Dino Reichmuth/Silhouette of person on top of mountain This article was featured in PALLADIUM 17: Universal Man . To receive your copy of the latest print edition, subscribe now. With the recent SpaceX Starship orbital flight tests, it is time to commit to building the largest physically possible space telescope. Such a telescope would peer deeper into the universe than any before it, answering fundamental questions: are we alone? What do Earth-like exoplanets around other stars look like? How did we get here? What weird stuff awaits discovery? Where is the limit on human ambition to know what

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