Cooper post 2 - JPL trip #1

Exoplanets and Star Shades from 9/8/17




My favorite part of our trip to JPL was learning about star shade's and exoplanets from Dr. Stuart Shaklan. I was surprised to learn that NASA has discovered 3,509 exoplanets since the 1970s. I was not expecting the number to be so high and it excited me to think about planets that exist outside our solar system. I think on an everyday basis I rarely consider the fact that earth orbits the sun along with all the other planets. I even rarely consider the fact that the earth is constantly rotating around the sun and on its axis. Learning about the existence of so many exoplanets helps put into perspective our place in the universe, along with many of the other concepts we learned about that day.

The star shade project really resonated with me because I was able to relate to the act of trying to take a picture on earth when facing towards the sun and how difficult it is. This gave me a visual to relate to when visualizing the function of the star shade. Two things that I found really exciting about the star shade was its design and the distance it has to be in front of the space telescope in order to properly block out the light. Also the fact that a star lightyears away still produces so much light that it makes it difficult to photograph the things around it. 

The star shade is shaped like a flower with a circular center and petals that fan outwards. It looks like a flower and has a sculptural quality to it. The star shade itself could be considered a work of art, drawing its origins from natural forms. Some other aspects to the design that were impressive is how it folds up like origami and deploys autonomously into its full shape. 

If the star shade is effective and NASA is able to get better information and images about exoplanets it could possibly bring them closer to determining if there are other planets inhabitable like earth. Along with many things learned at NASA, the star shade is one good way to grasp how small our earth is. In order for the star shade to do its job effectively it has to line up in front of the space telescope a distance equal to that of the radius of the earth three times (or is it diameter). I found this bit the most mind blowing. I cannot imagine what type of technology is required to line up two objects perfectly with such a large distance in between them. 

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