starlight suppression (11. 864)

As part of a fascinating series called “Who is Government?” (see also), Washington Post columnist Dave Eggers confidently asserts that with the next quarter of a century, humanity will have conclusive evidence of extra-terrestrial life, thanks to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope—giving a thoroughgoing profile of the astronomy pioneer who is the soon to be launched observatory’s name sake—which features a system of tiny pistons designed to occult the light of a host star, a coronagraph that can dynamically deform the reflecting mirror, that will enable with this shadow-casting technique far better imaging of any exoplanets orbiting it—an alternate yet untenable proposal (among other competitors) would be to use our Sun as a telescope through gravitational lensing (see also here and here) but the focal point is three times the distance that Voyager I has travelled. Aside from the answer to the existential question of are we alone, the essay goes on the explore the importance of tax-payer funded science (with dedicated government workers generally maligned) and return on investment in knowledge—projects that billionaires would never finance as there’s no money to be made in such endeavours. Much more at the links above.