Exoplanets are planets outside of our solar system that orbit stars, and while astronomers have definitively found dozens of exoplanets, Project Blue is the first ever mission to try and photograph one of them. In the same way that the Voyager satellite famously photographed Earth from a great distance away, showing people the "pale blue dot" (as Carl Sagan called our planet,) Project Blue hopes to give evidence of an exoplanet billions of kilometers away.
The significance of exoplanets is in their similarity to the planets in our solar system. Though the images from Project Blue will hardly reveal anything in high resolution, photographing an exoplanet and proving its existence beyond any doubt gets humanity one step closer to finding life outside our own planet.
Exoplanet Imaging Projects
Project Blue Hopes to Photograph an Exoplanet Around Alpha Centauri
Trend Themes
1. Exoplanet Imaging - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Develop new imaging technologies to capture high-resolution images of exoplanets.
2. Space Exploration - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Create advanced space missions to study and explore exoplanets.
3. Astrobiology - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Conduct research and develop technologies to search for signs of life on exoplanets.
Industry Implications
1. Astronomy - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Pioneer new telescopes and instruments for exoplanet imaging.
2. Space Technology - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Engineer spacecraft and instruments for advanced space exploration of exoplanets.
3. Biotechnology - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Apply astrobiology findings to advance the search for extraterrestrial life.