Notebook Space

A proposed space telescope would use Earth’s atmosphere as a lens

The ‘terrascope’ would use a detector in space to collect refracted light

terrascope

BIG SHOT  The bending of starlight caused by Earth’s atmosphere could be used to create a giant telescope, one scientist suggests, by placing a detector out in space (illustrated).

James Tuttle Keane

By Emily Conover

Telescopes keep getting bigger — and more expensive. But what if there were a better way?

One astronomer has suggested a possible work-around: Turn the entire Earth into a telescope lens by using the planet’s atmosphere to bend and focus light.