Solar gravitational lens

The solar gravitational lens is characterized by remarkable properties: it offers brightness amplification of up to a factor of ~1011 (at 1 μm) and extreme angular resolution (~10−10 arcsec).

[5] A probe called SETIsail and later FOCAL was proposed to the ESA in 1993, but is expected to be a difficult task.

In 2020, NASA physicist Slava Turyshev presented his idea of direct multi-pixel imaging and spectroscopy of an exoplanet with a solar gravitational lens mission.

[2] His proposal was selected for the Phase III of the NIAC 2020 (NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts).

[6] Turyshev proposes to use realistic-sized solar sails (~16 vanes of 103 m2) to achieve the needed high velocity at perihelion (~150 km/sec), reaching 547 AU in 17 years.