Here is How We Can Capture Continents and Oceans on Alien Planets

It seems impossible. Exoplanets, or planets that circle other stars, seem like fireflies next to flashlights from our perspective. They seem like tiny dots in the few images we have taken of them so far. You still need a telescope with a diameter of 90 kilometres to pick out surface characteristics on a planet 100 light-years away, and that won't change even when the next generation of space telescopes becomes operational.

A bold strategy to address these challenges has been developed by a team of researchers. They suggest that one day a space observatory stationed far beyond Pluto might provide unprecedented views of planets in orbit around other stars, revealing alien seas, continents, and perhaps evidence of life.

The plan is to send a fleet of solar sail spacecraft further from Earth than any previous space probe, then to turn around and utilize the gravity of the distant Sun as a big magnifying glass. If successful, we will get a photograph of an exoplanet with a resolution that will allow us to distinguish features as small as 10 kilometres wide.

Some astronomers, however, are looking far into the future, envisioning a solar lensing space telescope that might magnify tiny patches of an exoplanet's surface. They'd be able to provide a massively high-resolution picture, a realistic likeness of an extraterrestrial planet.

But is it feasible? and how does it operate precisely? Let's find out!

Since the turn of the century, the general contours have been understood. Albert Einstein was the first person to theorise about gravitational lensing. He came to the conclusion that the gravity of a big body, such as a star, would cause the light rays to be bent around it. In 1919, during a total solar eclipse, Sir Arthur Eddington made the first of many ground-breaking confirmations of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity by measuring the way starlight was bent by the Sun's gravity.

If a space telescope were placed in the precise location, it would be able to see an exoplanet's picture magnified by several orders of magnitude. The light coming from the planet would be bent by the Sun, and it would be focused at a point on the opposite side. This would have the effect of enlarging the image of the exoplanet until it was enormous.

However, there is a lengthy catalogue of telescopic issues that could arise.

The first issue is the physical distance. An astronomical unit is equal to the distance from Earth to the Sun, which is approximately 93 million miles. This value serves as the standard for measuring the length of such long journeys. The distance between the Sun and Pluto is approximately 40 astronomical units.

547 astronomical units is the minimum distance required for a solar lensing telescope. In all actuality, however, the telescope would need to be situated even further out in order to achieve the correct alignment; the distance could be as great as 2,000 astronomical units or even further.

The icy Kuiper belt of space bodies, of which Pluto is included, spans to a distance of approximately 55 astronomical units. The Oort cloud is a shell that extends from 5,000 to 100,000 astronomical units. It is the region of dormant comets, which are the most distant objects that are gravitationally connected to the Sun.

And to go to the next closest star, Proxima Centauri, you would have to travel 271,000 light years.

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