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.

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