Original title: 3.5-meter Segmented-Mirror Robotic Space Telescope Mission White Paper III. Key Scientific Mission: Exoplanet Science with a Coronagraph
Juhan Kim, Sang Hyun Lee, Yong-Woo Kang, Jeong-Yeol Han +21 · September 2026
Seeing planets outside our solar system is hard because bright stars hide them. Researchers designed a science program for a proposed 3.5-meter robotic space telescope with a built-in coronagraph, a device that blocks bright starlight. By blocking this glare, the telescope can spot faint planets orbiting nearby stars. The plan focuses on our closest stellar neighbors. Due to how light bends, the telescope can see reflected starlight from Earth-distance planets out to roughly 10--15 pc and Jupiter-like worlds out to roughly 50--80 pc. Within these distances, it can take pictures of giant planets, measure their atmospheric light, study dust disks, and aid future life-seeking missions. A wide-field camera also tracks transits, planet occurrence rates, and stellar magnetic activity.
Imagine trying to photograph a firefly sitting on a streetlamp. The lamp is so bright that the firefly disappears in the glare. You could hold up a card to block the lamp, but then you need to keep the card perfectly aligned as the lamp moves. In this paper, the telescope does exactly that: it blocks the star's light with a special device and uses precise control to keep the blockage steady, revealing the faint planets around it.
This matters because it will let us directly study the atmospheres of planets orbiting the nearest stars, the most likely places to find habitable worlds. It also creates a lasting census of our solar neighborhood, guiding future interstellar missions and the search for biosignatures.
The abstract doesn't state limitations explicitly, but it presents a mission concept rather than a built telescope. The reflected-light horizon is limited to roughly 10-80 pc depending on planet size, and the paper does not specify the instrument's contrast performance or expected detection rates.
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3.5-meter Segmented-Mirror Robotic Space Telescope Mission White Paper III. Key Scientific Mission: Exoplanet Science with a Coronagraph — Juhan Kim, Sang Hyun Lee, Yong-Woo Kang et al.
Abstract licence: CC0
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.