How to Take Snapshots of Distant Worlds

One of the grand challenges of NASA's search for new worlds is to develop technologies that will allow us to obtain the first images of planets circling distant stars.

While the parent star is the source of light that will make any planet visible, its glare is between a million and 10 billion times brighter than the faint little speck we are looking for. Therefore, any detailed study of extrasolar planets will require methods to cover up or otherwise control the glare of the parent star so that we can study its immediate surroundings.

Another challenge stems from the fact that, compared to the separation between most things in the universe, planets are located extremely close to their parent stars. For this reason, we need very high resolution to separate the planet from its nearby host.

The following is an overview of several techniques in development that could overcome these obstacles and make extrasolar planet imaging a reality.