NASA Wants to Turn the Sun Into a Giant Telescope

To capture unprecedented, high-resolution images of distant exoplanets, NASA is actively developing a mind-bending mission that uses the Sun’s massive gravitational field as a giant magnifying glass. This revolutionary concept relies on Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, where our star's immense gravity bends and focuses light from alien worlds located up to 100 light-years away.

Credit:
A Horseshoe Einstein Ring: By ESA/Hubble & NASA, Bulwersator, https://tinyurl.com/2e7eandk
HST-Smiling-GalaxyCluster: By NASA/ESA - https://tinyurl.com/mjj5yz9m, https://tinyurl.com/bd2uwa4n
Gravitational lens: By NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle - https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6314, https://tinyurl.com/4f9bs9wj
Gravitationell-lins-4: By NASA, N. Benitez (JHU), T. Broadhurst (Racah Institute of Physics/The Hebrew University), H. Ford (JHU), M. Clampin (STScI),G. Hartig (STScI), G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick Observatory), the ACS Science Team and ESA - https://tinyurl.com/3kwvvy67, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1727600
Voyager spacecraft model: By NASA - smd-prod.s3.amazonaws.com., https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66602695
Advanced Composite Solar Sail System deployment: By NASA - https://www.nasa.gov/mission/acs3/, https://tinyurl.com/2mczsxmp
Advanced Composite Solar Sail System testing: By NASA - https://www.nasa.gov/mission/acs3/, https://tinyurl.com/4h7ceb6p
Webb Telescope Milestone: Completion of Telescope Element: By NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Michael McClare, Sophia Roberts, Michael Menzel, https://tinyurl.com/32s3e25t
Radio Galaxy Hercules A: By NASA, ESA, S. Baum and C. O'Dea (RIT), R. Perley and W. Cotton (NRAO/AUI/NSF), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), https://tinyurl.com/ua6dh2j5
1996-04-a-web: By Andrea Dupree (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Ronald Gilliland (STScI), NASA and ESA. - http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/1996/04/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=620655
Fomalhaut with Disk Ring: By NASA, ESA, P. Kalas, J. Graham, E. Chiang, E. Kite (University of California, Berkeley), M. Clampin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), M. Fitzgerald (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and K. Stapelfeldt and J. Krist (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory) - https://tinyurl.com/2unue78k, https://tinyurl.com/yas74jjr
Asteroid P/2010 A2: By NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA), https://science.nasa.gov/image-detail/p2010-a2/
P-2013 R3 Hubble: By NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (University of California, Los Angeles) - https://tinyurl.com/mtuvahav, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=126200573
NASA-Galaxies15k: By NASA, ESA, P. Oesch (University of Geneva), and M. Montes (University of New South Wales) - https://tinyurl.com/mudkj4sd, https://tinyurl.com/y2e4eyjw
Apollo 17 Lunar Roving Vehicle: By NASA / Harrison H. Schmitt - https://tinyurl.com/yc4wz294 http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-001139.html, https://tinyurl.com/34mxcr9d
CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0:
Earth from TPS LightSail 2: By Kevin M. Gill - https://flic.kr/p/2jnfMhy, https://tinyurl.com/43h2v5d3
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0:
NGC4038 Large 01: By W4sm astro, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87256935
CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0:
CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0:
The Sunburst Arc PSZ1: By ESA/Hubble, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83857626
Jewelled ring: By ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Nierenberg, https://tinyurl.com/mzzsynjw
Cosmic snake pregnant with stars: By ESA/Hubble, https://tinyurl.com/yr6a746a
On the hunt for newborn stars: By ESA/Hubble, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73630564
Satellite: By ilarioseb/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/oWu9I
Voyager 1&2: By Your Local Loser/sketchfab, https://skfb.ly/o7NDy
Proxima Centauri: By ESO./L. Calçada/Nick Risinger, https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1629d/
PDS 70 - eso2111b: By ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Benisty et al., https://tinyurl.com/2dee6ewh
The Egg Nebula: By ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Balick (University of Washington), https://tinyurl.com/343tpujs
water plumes on Europa: By ESA/Hubble, https://tinyurl.com/2vrupafn
deep blue planet: By NASA, ESA, M. Kornmesser, https://esahubble.org/images/heic1312a/
M87 supermassive black hole: By EHT Collaboration - https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2105a, https://tinyurl.com/3txk4xtb
Sagittarius Astar: By EHT Collaboration - https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2406a, https://tinyurl.com/3vbxmjc6
Animation is created by Bright Side.