A brand new telescope system concept could completely change and revolutionize the way scientists and astronomers look into space. New technology, which is being named after the French scientist named Francois Arago is called the Aragoscope, and could provide nearly 1,000 times sharper images of what is going on in space. Francois Arago received recognition for detecting that diffracted light waves around a disk would give astronomers and scientists the ability to view things in space, and image things in space that simply could not be imaged before.
Comparatively, this would be 1,000 times more effective than the Hubble Space Telescope. The Aragoscope would be set to orbit about 25,000 miles from Earth, and would specifically follow the path Earth takes around the sun. That being said, scientists are confident that this project can move into the next phase. Anthony Harness of the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences said “Traditionally, space telescopes have essentially been monolithic pieces of glass like the Hubble Space Telescope, but the heavier the space telescope, the more expensive the cost of the launch. We have found a way to solve that problem by putting large, lightweight optics into space that offer a much higher resolution and lower cost.”
That perhaps is the biggest news to come from this development. The fact that it will cost significantly less to build, launch, and actually maintain. The team working on the technology pointed out that it isn’t exactly complex either, when looking at the parts at play. They said, “The opaque disk of the Arogoscope works in a similar way to a basic lens. The light diffracted around the edge of the circular disk travels the same path length to the center and comes into focus as an image.” While that may seem complicated at first, it doesn’t behave that differently than what scientists already use on a regular basis, or even the type of telescope that is currently on the Hubble craft.
However, this new technology will have the opportunity to really focus in on some of the issues that scientists have had thus far in space when it comes to maintaining telescopes over the span of years, and years. It would give scientists an opportunity to take a close look at things they have never had the chance to thus far in space exploration.