New space telescope TOLIMAN to hunt for alien life in Alpha Centauri star system

An international team of scientists from Australia and the US announced a new space telescope mission on Wednesday, November 17, to hunt alien life outside our solar system. The telescope will be built with the intent to examine Alpha Centauri, the closest system near Earth that consists of three stars, where two of them- Alpha Centauri A and B are the size of the sun, along with a red dwarf star called Proxima Centauri. Called TOLIMAN, the mission sports the Arabic-derived name for Alpha Centauri from antiquity. Dr. Pete Worden, Executive Director of the Breakthrough Initiatives, who is also a part of the mission, said as per Breakthrough's statement-

Our nearest stellar neighbors – the Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri systems – are turning out to be extraordinarily interesting. The TOLIMAN mission will be a huge step toward finding out if planets capable of supporting life exist there.

TOLIMAN to look for habitable planets 

The mission is based on a collaboration between the University of Sydney, the California-based Breakthrough Initiatives, Saber Astronautics in Australia and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The space telescope, which is expected to launch in 2023, will look for planets in the ‘Goldilocks’ zone around the star system just four light-years away, where temperatures could allow for liquid surface water on rocky planets.

Professor Tuthill, who is also part of the project was quoted saying, "Getting to know our planetary neighbours is hugely important. These next-door planets are the ones where we have the best prospects for finding and analyzing atmospheres, surface chemistry and possibly even the fingerprints of a biosphere – the tentative signals of life". Scientists already believe that the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri has one planet in a ‘Goldilocks orbit’, that was discovered in 2016, and speculate that the other two stars might also have temperate planets orbiting them.

According to a description by Breakthrough Initiative, the proposed telescope has been designed with a mirror pattern known as a diffractive pupil. With this technology, the telescope will spread starlight into a complex flower pattern that will provide astronomers with a more detailed picture. "Nobody is underestimating the challenge but our innovative design incorporates new tricks. Our plan is for an agile low-cost mission that delivers results by about the middle of the decade", Tuthill said. 

Image: Twitter/@NASAWebb