![]() That’s something that’s beyond the capability of the existing generation of telescopes. The joint collecting area of 80 feet/25.4 meters is critical for exoplanet science where the light from a star and the massively dimmer planets orbiting really close to it need to be separated. The sharpness of a telescope’s imaging is directly related to the size of the telescope-its diameter and its collecting aperture. Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation Why size is important The Giant Magellan Telescope excels at visible-light observations and detecting molecules created by life in the atmospheres of cool planets. Earth-like planets that can support life are both rocky and cool, and therefore faint in the infrared. The James Webb Space Telescope excels at infrared observations and detecting molecules in the atmospheres of hot planets. forming planets are hot, and therefore bright at infrared wavelengths. The visible-light spectrum is essential for studying exoplanets and detecting signs of life. “That’s the key to both understanding the possible presence of life and to understanding the distribution of other kinds of planets in the universe.” “You can also take the light from those exoplanets into a spectrograph to measure the molecules in its atmosphere,” said Bernstein.
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