FUTURE TECH: DEEP-ORBIT OBSERVATORY

We can use the Sun as a giant lens, but wed need to send a telescope far into the Solar System

Using a technique called gravitational lensing, the Fast Outgoing Cyclopean Astronomical Lens (FOCAL) will enable us to see deeper into space than ever before. With the ability to view distant objects at huge magnifications, the telescope will be situated between 550 and 1,000 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, which is the greatest area of magnification possible. Originally devised by SETI astronomer Claudio Maccone in a 1992 paper, FOCAL was formally proposed to the European Space Agency in 2000 and put forward by Maccone at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in 2010.

The telescope’s magnification works by distorting space-time, an idea that was published in a 1936 paper by Einstein using his theory of relativity. This was improved upon in 1964 by Sidney Liebes’ mathematical theory of gravitational focusing and then in 1978 by the discovery of twin quasars by astronomer Dennis Walsh.