Exo Earth Imager
The Exo Earth Imager (EEI for short) is a concept of a gigantic space telescope published in 1999 by the French astronomer Antoine Labeyrie from the Observatoire de Haute-Provence .
concept
The space telescope should be designed in such a way that even near-earth, earth-like exoplanets can be targeted directly and details of the surfaces there in the size z. B. the Amazon basin are visible. This would require a mirror with a diameter of a few hundred kilometers.
A smaller design from 2006 suggests a giant telescope that consists of 150 smaller mirror elements, each 3 meters in diameter, which merge into a gigantic mirror. In the space composed, they would cover an area of 8,000 square kilometers. The prerequisite for the function of a space telescope assembled in this way would be the very exact alignment of all partial mirrors with one another. All individual small telescopes are supposed to circle the earth in three different, concentric orbits.
See also
Web links
- Telepolis article on the EEI
- Website of the Observatoire de Haute-Provence