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Solar-Focus Telescope at 542 AU to Image 1-km Exoplanet Details

7/8/2026

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Summary

Story summary

U.S. astrophotographer Mark Johnston proposes a telescope at the Sun’s gravitational focus, 542 AU from the Sun, to out-perform JWST.
The lens could reach 10?¹0-arcsecond resolution—about a million times finer than the Event Horizon Telescope.
Solar-sail cubesats would travel there, scan tens of kilometres, and enable a camera to resolve 1-km features on Proxima b and any exoplanet within 100 light-years.

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Story summary

U.S. astrophotographer Mark Johnston proposes a telescope at the Sun’s gravitational focus, 542 AU from the Sun, to out-perform JWST.
The lens could reach 10?¹0-arcsecond resolution—about a million times finer than the Event Horizon Telescope.
Solar-sail cubesats would travel there, scan tens of kilometres, and enable a camera to resolve 1-km features on Proxima b and any exoplanet within 100 light-years.