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  VIRTUAL EXPLORATION
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   MISSIONS/RESEARCH
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Did you know?

Conventional telescopes relied on giant mirrors to gather light, while cutting edge interferometers use separate sensors working together to collect far more information.
 
Virtual Telescopes

Giant telescopes to explore other stars.
Giant telescopes will study other stars.
If life exists beyond our solar system, giant telescopes will play a critical role in finding it. That's because incredibly powerful telescopes can make observations across vast distances of space and see further than the distances any spacecraft can currently travel.

Unlike your usual telescopes on the ground, these  virtual telescopes  will be in space. The idea is to pack them in small containers and send them into space where they will inflate to the size of a football field. Once in space, their highly reflective surfaces will convert the Sun's rays into energy to propel them deeper into our solar system and beyond, searching for traces of life.

For more information on telescopes that are searching for life, visit our Stars & Galaxies section.

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Missions/Research:

ARISE ARISE
   Advanced Radio Interferometry between space and Earth, or ARISE, is a future mission that will use one or two 25-meter radio telescopes in Earth's orbit, along with several ground-based telescopes, to obtain the highest resolution images of astronomical phenomena in the universe. 		Herschel Space Observatory Herschel Space Observatory
   Herschel is a mission being developed by the European Space Agency, with NASA as a participant. It will be an orbiting infrared telescope that will take high-resolution images in the submillimeter and far-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. These images will help explain how stars and planetary systems form. Their site is under development.
Interferometry Center of Excellence Interferometry Center of Excellence
   JPL is helping NASA develop technologies that let us see far beyond the limits of where spaceships can presently travel. Interferometry is a developing technology that combines the power of several telescopes, in space or on the ground, which give us the ability to gather more detailed information than available from an individual instrument working alone.
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