TED Talks

Jeremy Kasdin: The flower-shaped starshade that might help us detect Earth-like planets

TV-PG
2014 • E77    Apr 17, 2014    15m
Astronomers believe that every star in the galaxy has a planet, one fifth of which might harbor life. Only we haven't seen any of them — yet. Jeremy Kasdin and his team are looking to change that with the design and engineering of an extraordinary piece of equipment: a flower petal-shaped "starshade" positioned 50,000 km from a telescope to enable imaging of planets about distant stars. It is, he says, the "coolest possible science."

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    TED Talks - 2014 • Episode 77 - Jeremy Kasdin: The flower-shaped starshade that might help us detect Earth-like planets - Plex