During the week of 20th May 2022 In an announcement CNSA – China National Space Administration– Chinese Academy of Sciences will launch an optical telescope with a diameter of 1.2 meters to search for habitable exoplanets in the immediate vicinity] Chinese scientists have proposed a sky survey program through space telescopes to search for habitable terrestrial planets outside the solar system about 32 light-years away from the earth. If implemented, this will be the first international space exploration mission dedicated to finding habitable terrestrial planets around nearby sun-like stars.
Ji Jianghui, a researcher at the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the project leader of the “Nearby-habitable Planetary Survey Program”, introduced that the “Nearby-habitable Planetary Survey Program” will observe about 100 sun-like stars about 32 light-years away from the earth for a long time, which is expected to be the first time. The discovery of habitable zone terrestrial planets around them, especially “Earth 2.0” (planets with a size, orbit and environment very similar to Earth), achieve a major breakthrough in “from 0 to 1”. It is estimated that this plan is expected to discover about 50 terrestrial planets. Scientists will give information such as the number, true mass and three-dimensional orbits of habitable planets and “super-Earths” (exoplanets several times to 10 times the mass of Earth) through a detailed census of the nearby planetary systems in the solar system.
According to the plan, a high image quality, low distortion, high stability optical telescope with an aperture of 1.2 meters will be sent into the Halo orbit of the second Lagrangian point of the Sun-Earth system, and will maintain stable operation in this orbit for at least 5 years Time, during which 100 sun-like stars will be scientifically detected, and each star will be observed no less than 50 times.
Chinese Academy of Sciences located in 52 Sanlihe Rd., Xicheng District, Beijing, China (100864) – China -People’s Republic of China Images and visuals are from CNSA- China National Space Administration also from there respectives-