Russia has a new space mission
in preparation that can be used for the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence. The project Millimetron is a
millimeter and sub-millimeter space observatory with a 10
meter diameter mirror, very sensitive receivers for single
dish mode and will be used for orbiting VLBI (Very Long Base
Interferometer). This telescope would be convenient for a
very sensitive all sky survey with the possibility of
constructing images of sources with a very high angular
resolution. The mission will be useful for the search for
astro-engineering constructions in the universe.
The goal of the project is to
construct a space observatory operating in millimeter,
sub-millimeter and infrared wavelength ranges using 12-m
cryogenic telescope. The observatory will provide
possibility to conduct astronomical observations with super
high sensitivity (down to nanoJansky level) in a single dish
mode, and observations with super high angular resolution.
The space-based observatory
will also make it possible to look for the signatures of
wormholes at the center of large galaxies.
An ordinary black hole focuses
light rays passing close to it as if it were a giant concave
lens – an effect known as gravitational lensing. A
wormhole's negative mass of phantom matter would have the
opposite gravitational lensing effect to normal matter,
making any light passing through the wormhole from another
universe or point in space-time diverge, and emerge from it
as a bright ring. Meanwhile, any stars behind it would shine
through the middle.
“It is an interesting attempt
to actually think of what a real signature for a wormhole
would be, but it is more hypothetical than observational,”
says Lawrence Krauss at Case Western Reserve University in
Cleveland, Ohio. “Without any idea of what phantom matter is
and its possible interactions with light, it is not clear
one can provide a general argument.”
Millimetron Project is included
into the Space Research Program of Russian Federation for
2015. The launch date for the first spacecraft is planned
for 2016.
Posted by Casey Kazan.
Related Galaxy posts:
Astro-Engineering Artifacts as
Evidence of Extraterrestrial Life
Michio Kaku's Civilizations of the Cosmos
The Great Silence & 1.8
Gigayear Interval
James Cameron & Arthur C Clarke
on 2001 A Space Odyssey
New Technologies & the Search
for Extraterrestrial Life -A Galaxy Insight
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos
Revisited -NASA's Phoenix Probe & the Search for
Eyes on the Cosmos -European Space Agency's Hawk 1 &
Hubble's Successor
Cruising the Goldilocks Zone
-The Search for "Super-Earths"
Non-Carbon Lifeforms -Why We May Overlook
