Let us transform the sun into a telescope. In fact, we don't have to do any work – we just have to be in the right place.
But how can the sun be a telescope? The sun is not a mirror, but it is an objective. And we understand that it is a lens through the magic of gravity.
When Einstein developed a general theory of relativity, he found that gravity can strongly bend the light path – far more than earlier calculations with only predicted Newtonian gravity. In fact, one of the first tests of Einstein's theory of relativity was the Eddington expedition to consider the distraction of the star light near the sun surface during a total solar eclipse
Massive objects bend the light path. Lenses, such as curved glass pieces, bend the light path.
Coincidence? Yes.
It is a total coincidence, but it means that everything we know about optics, about grinding, lenses, about bending light, focusing from light from a distant object to a focus to increase it and increase the resolution. We can create gravitational lenses in which the gravity of a massive object can bend the entire light that is located, and send it to a focal point where you can simply sit and enjoy the enlarged picture right there, as if there was a huge piece of curved glass.
This technique is already working. We are already using gravitational lenses in the universe to skip huge distances and to see the early universe, in which some of the first galaxies appearing in the universe are simply too far away, too small and too dark to see it. But if you happen to sit behind a huge massive pile of galaxies, the gravity of this galaxy hub will bend this light, concentrate the light, reinforce this light and increase the resolution. And we can use a whole group of galaxies as a huge lens to enlarge what is behind it and enable us to see some of the distant galaxies in the universe.
In the solar system, this is by far the most solid object the sun. We know that the gravity of the sun bends the light path around it as if it were a huge lens.
It is like we have a huge telescope that is only in the middle of the solar system, and it is by far the most powerful telescope that we can present with adequate extensions of our current technological limits.
The sun as a gravitational lens is the most powerful telescope in history.
We use Einstein's theory of relativity to calculate what could be the magnifying force of the solar gravity lens. Its angle resolution goes up to 10 to minus 10 Arcseconds. This is a million times better than the event horizon telescope.
And due to the effects of the gravitational lenses, you not only get a higher resolution. You will also receive an amplification of the brightness because it combines a number of light rays and focuses. You will receive an increase in brightness up to a factor of a hundred billion.
To say that this is better than any known telescope is an understatement. This is better than any possible telescope that we may be able to build for the next hundred years in every possible future, and it is only there.
What do you get with this type of solution? Let me give an example. We know that there is a planet that circles our next neighboring star, proxima Centauri. We call the planet proxima b.
We know this planet. We know it's rocky. We know it's earthy. We know that it sits in the habitable zone of proxima Centauri. A telescope constructed from the solar gravitational lens could release the surface of proxima b to a resolution of less than one kilometer.
This is not a pixel that contains the entire planet. This creates a detailed map of the surface up to one kilometer.
Check out a picture of the earth with a resolution of about one kilometer. It looks like … the earth. You can see coasts. You can see hurricanes. You can see jungle. You can track rivers.
This is crazy. The Solar gravitational lens could build a decent map of an exoplanet that sits after us in about a hundred light years. Compare this with a telescope in the past and the future, and there is simply no competition.