00:00Exoplanets, or planets that don't reside in our solar system, are difficult to see.
00:08Unlike stars, or even things like black holes, they don't give off light or radiation,
00:12meaning oftentimes we only know they're there when they travel between us and a star,
00:16blocking the light and radiation, and allowing astronomers to deduce their existence.
00:20But now experts may have a way to actually see what these distant planets look like,
00:24using a telescopic lens made from light bent around giant cosmic objects.
00:29So how would that even work?
00:30According to Science Alert, astronomers would effectively scan the light
00:34which gravity is bending around a giant object like a planet or a star.
00:37And now two physicists from Stanford have developed that idea,
00:41and believe that from just a single image of bent light around the sun,
00:44they could focus light from far off planets into a discernible image.
00:47But that would require capturing the image of bent light from far,
00:51far out in the solar system with a Hubble-sized telescope.
00:54However, they've already tested the technique much closer to home,
00:57using a weather satellite looking at the gravity distorted image of our own planet,
01:01and recreating this, a proof of concept, and a pixelated, yet recognizable image of Earth.
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