alt Hacker NewsI just want to live long enough for space telescopes to evolve exponentially to observe kilonovas in the visual spectrum
I mean laser interferometers are an amazing advancement but just imagine seeing an earth-sized chunk of gold pop out of a kilonova (probably not my lifetime but eventually a human will see it happen)
Thank goodness this administration did not frack with Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, I thought the name alone would make them cancel it or rename it after him, wait maybe I shouldn't even mention that idea...
* https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Grace_Roman_Space_Telesc...
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Well I mean I would expect that the gold would be fired off in all directions as more of an atomic mist than a chunk
Check out the aragoscope [1]. It's not planned, but we would already have the technology as it doesn't rely on fragile and heavy lenses to be sent in orbit.
If you look at image 17 you can see that a simulated aragoscope that is in our technical reach could already resolve the Jupiter moons from almost 23 light years away. I hope as well that we will have something comparable while I am still around.
[1] https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2014_phase_i...