Astronomers have always been fascinated by the vast expanse of the universe and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Over the years, they have discovered more than 5,000 planets outside our solar system. The burning question on everyone’s mind is whether any of these distant planets could potentially harbor life as we know it. To unlock the answers hidden among the stars, astronomers require powerful telescopes, far more advanced than those we have today.

Introducing the Nautilus Space Observatory

Meet the Nautilus Space Observatory, a groundbreaking project that could surpass the capabilities of the renowned James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). For the past seven years, a team of visionary scientists, led by astronomer Daniel Apai, has been developing this revolutionary new space telescope with the potential to collect an astonishing hundred times more light than the JWST.

Most space telescopes, including the renowned Hubble and JWST, employ large, cumbersome mirrors to gather light from distant celestial bodies. However, the Nautilus Space Observatory takes a bold departure from this conventional approach. It embraces a novel, thin lens design that promises to be much lighter, more cost-effective, and easier to produce than traditional mirrored telescopes. This breakthrough opens up exciting possibilities, allowing the deployment of numerous individual Nautilus units into space, creating a formidable network of telescopes.

Exoplanets, those planets that orbit stars other than our Sun, are a top priority in the quest for potential life beyond Earth. Detecting these faint and distant worlds requires space telescopes that can gather immense amounts of light. Although existing telescopes can detect exoplanets as small as Earth, studying their chemical composition, especially the presence of life-enabling gases in their atmospheres, demands heightened sensitivity that only a more powerful telescope can provide.

The James Webb Space Telescope, a colossal $8 billion undertaking that took over two decades to construct, is a testament to the ambition of space exploration. However, even this remarkable achievement has its limitations. The need for a more capable flagship telescope looms on the horizon, but such ambitious projects are always beset with challenges of costs, labor, and specialized technology.

A Glimpse into the Past to Shape the Future

In 2016, Northrop Grumman, a prominent aerospace giant, gathered a group of esteemed professors and NASA scientists, all experts in exoplanets and the search for extraterrestrial life, in Los Angeles. Their objective was to contemplate what exoplanet space telescopes would look like in the distant future. It was during these discussions that they stumbled upon a significant roadblock – the struggle to create larger mirrors and transport them into space.

To surmount this hurdle, the team decided to revisit an old optical technology – diffractive lenses. Unlike conventional lenses that use refraction to focus light, diffractive lenses capitalize on the bending of light around corners and obstacles. Although they have been utilized in consumer optics like camera lenses and virtual reality headsets, they have never been employed in astronomical observatories due to their tendency to produce blurry images.

Revolutionizing Telescope Design with Diffractive Lenses

Determined to unlock the full potential of diffractive lenses, Daniel Apai and his team set out to improve their clarity. Collaborating with renowned expert Thomas Milster, they embarked on a journey to design a new type of diffractive lens that would outperform its predecessors. Utilizing cutting-edge manufacturing techniques, the team etched a complex pattern of tiny grooves onto clear glass or plastic, enabling the lens to focus incoming light with unprecedented precision.

The brilliance of this breakthrough lies in the lens’s surface texture, which handles the focusing instead of the lens’s thickness. This ingenious design allows for the creation of larger, thin, and lightweight lenses, which efficiently collect more light. The significance of these lightweight lenses extends to cost-effective launches into orbit – a crucial advantage for any space telescope.

The team’s efforts bore fruit in August 2018 when they produced the first prototype – a mere 2-inch (5-centimeter) diameter lens. Over the following five years, they continued refining the technology, resulting in a 10-inch (24-cm) diameter lens that weighs more than ten times less than conventional refractive lenses.

The implications of this breakthrough were profound. The team envisioned a 29.5-foot (8.5-meter) diameter lens, a mere 0.2 inches (0.5 cm) thick, boasting a support structure weighing approximately 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms). Such a telescope would be over three times lighter than a Webb-style mirror of similar size and substantially larger than the JWST’s 21-foot (6.5-meter) diameter mirror.

A Constellation of Discoveries

The Nautilus Space Observatory’s remarkable features extend beyond its thin and lightweight lenses. The lens-based telescopes offer the benefit of working effectively even when not perfectly aligned, making them far easier to assemble and fly in space compared to mirror-based telescopes that demand intricate precision.

Intriguingly, the cost-effectiveness and relative ease of producing individual Nautilus units make it feasible to launch multiple telescopes into orbit. In fact, the Nautilus Space Observatory is envisioned as a constellation of 35 independent telescope units.

Each Nautilus unit operates as a highly sensitive observatory, capable of gathering more light than the JWST. However, the true strength of the Nautilus Space Observatory lies in its ability to focus all 35 individual telescopes on a single target. By combining the data from these units, the Nautilus achieves the light-collecting power of a telescope nearly ten times larger than the JWST. This level of potency enables astronomers to search hundreds of exoplanets for atmospheric gases that could potentially indicate the presence of extraterrestrial life.

Charting the Path Forward

Though the Nautilus Space Observatory is still a considerable distance away from launch, the progress made by Daniel Apai and his team is undeniably inspiring. Their small-scale prototypes have proven the technology’s viability, and they are now working on a 3.3-foot (1-meter) diameter lens. As the next step, they plan to send a scaled-down version of the telescope to the edge of space using a high-altitude balloon.

With these milestones accomplished, the team is poised to propose the revolutionary Nautilus Space Observatory to NASA, paving the way for the exploration of hundreds of distant worlds in search of life’s enigmatic signatures.

The Nautilus Space Observatory embodies a paradigm shift in space exploration, bringing us closer than ever before to understanding the cosmos and the potential for life beyond our planet. As we venture further into the vastness of space, the thin-lensed telescope design marks a pivotal moment in human exploration, promising to unlock the secrets of the universe and reveal the marvels that lie beyond the stars.