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THE VIDEO SHELF · solar gravitational lens telescopes

The REAL Possibility of Mapping Alien Planets!

PBS Space Time explains the proposal to use the Sun's gravity as a giant lens, sending a train of small light-sail spacecraft to the focal point roughly 550 AU out. It covers how such a telescope could image exoplanets in surprising detail and the engineering challenges involved.

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Why HN readers recommended it

It is the go-to explanation whenever a thread touches on imaging exoplanets or solar gravitational lens telescopes.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel
PBS Space Time
Topic
solar gravitational lens telescopes
Format
explainer
Level
general
HN recommenders in dataset
4
HN mentions in dataset
7
Recommendation years in dataset
2023–2024

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

  • I feel like you need to see _this_ spacetime video: [VIDEO] If you think LISA is mad this will blow your mind.

    lasc4r on Hacker News · 2023-06
    In Monster gravitational waves spotted for first time

  • Pretty good explanation of the technique and challenges involved: [VIDEO] One figure that stands out, the probe would need to be about 550 AU from the sun. Voyager 1 is about 150 AU away from the sun right now, for comparison.

    nkrisc on Hacker News · 2023-01
    In Wolf 1069B: Earth-mass planet in the habitable zone of a nearby, low-mass star

  • good old Space Time has a pretty good video on this [VIDEO] and it might even be possible and more feasible to use planets [LINK] and even earth [LINK] as lenses

    Galaxeblaffer on Hacker News · 2023-03
    In JWST gets best view yet of planet in hotly pursued star system

Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.