Beijing-SANA
China today announced plans to launch a large space telescope to explore exoplanets and be operational by 2035.
Xinhua quoted researchers from the Primary Laboratory of Optical Astronomy of the National Astronomical Observatories in Beijing as saying: "The 6-meter telescope will be called Tianlin, and will be mainly dedicated to the search for Earth-like planets, especially terrestrial twins in habitable zones around nearby stars, especially since the habitable zone is the not very hot and not very cold regions around the star, where liquid water can be found on the surface of the planet."
The researchers explained that the main goal of the mission is to search for and characterize the atmospheres of nearby exoplanets, especially Earth-like and nearby rocky planets around the stars "G" and "K" to explore their habitability, search for potential biosignatures in their atmosphere or on their surfaces, and obtain a comprehensive understanding of the different types of planets and planetary systems in terms of their components, how they form and evolve and what constitutes their atmosphere.
The Tianlin telescope will be launched into the Sun-Earth point halo orbit 2nd point of the Earth-Sun system is ideal for astronomy because the spacecraft will be close enough to communicate with Earth, and can keep the Sun, Earth and Moon behind the spacecraft for solar energy.
It will be stationed on a spacecraft platform that will be developed in conjunction with the telescope to achieve the high dynamic and thermal stability required by the mission's objectives.
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