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This is the Hubblecast.

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News and images from the
NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

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Travelling through time and space
with our host, Dr. J

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EPISODE 25: What's next?
a. k.a. Dr. Joe Liske.

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Welcome to the seventh and last
special episode of the Hubblecast

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celebrating the International
Year of Astronomy in 2009.

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Last time, we saw how
telescopes in space

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have revolutionised almost
every field in astronomy.

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This time, we'll have a look at the
new an amazing telescopes of the future

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that are currently being planned.

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In Arizona, the first mirror has been
cast for the giant Magellan Telescope.

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This huge instrument would be build at
the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.

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Its seven mirrors, each
well over 8 metres across,

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will be arranged like
the petals of a flower.

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And together they will
capture more than four times

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the amount of light any
current telescope can catch.

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The Californian Thirty Meter
Telescope, planned for 2015,

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is more like a giant version of Keck.

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Hundreds of individual segments
make up one enormous mirror

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as tall as a six-storey apartment.

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In Europe, plans are ready for a
European Extremely Large Telescope.

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At 42 metres in diameter,

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its mirror will be as large
as an Olympic swimming pool.

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Twice the surface area of
the Thirty Meter Telescope.

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These future monsters, optimized
for infrared observations,

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will all be outfitted with sensitive
instruments and adaptive optics.

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They should reveal the very first
generation of galaxies and stars

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in the history of the Universe.

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Moreover, they may provide us with the first
true picture of a planet in another solar system.

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For radio astronomers,
42 meters is peanuts.

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They hook up many smaller instruments
to synthesise a much larger receiver.

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In the Netherlands, the Low Frequency
Array, or LOFAR, is under construction.

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Fibre optics will connect 30,000
antennas to a central supercomputer.

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The novel design has no moving parts,

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but it can observe in eight
different directions simultaneously.

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LOFAR technology will probably find
its way into the Square Kilometre Array,

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which is now topping the
wish-list of radio astronomers.

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The international array will be
built in Australia or South Africa.

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Large dish antennas and
small receivers will team up

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to provide incredibly detailed
views of the radio sky.

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And with a total collecting
area of one square kilometre,

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the new array will be by far

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the most sensitive radio
instrument ever constructed.

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Evolving galaxies, powerful
quasars, blinking pulsars,

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no single source of
radio waves will be safe

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from the spying eyes of
the Square Kilometre Array.

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The instrument will even look
for possible radio signals

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from extraterrestrial civilisations.

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And what about space?

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Well, after its fifth and
final servicing mission,

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the Hubble Space Telescope will
be on active duty until 2013 or so.

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Around that time, its
successor will be launched.

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Meet the James Webb Space Telescope,

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a space infrared observatory named
after a former NASA administrator.

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Once in space, its 6.5 metre segmented
mirror unfolds like a blooming flower,

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one seven times as
sensitive as Hubble's.

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A large sunshade keeps the optics

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and the low-temperature
instruments in permanent shadow,

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allowing them to operate near a
whopping minus 233 degrees Celsius.

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The James Webb Space Telescope
won't orbit the Earth.

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Instead, it will be parked 1.5
million kilometres from our planet,

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in a wide orbit around the Sun.

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Half a century ago, the Hale
telescope on Palomar Mountain

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was the largest in history.

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Now, an even bigger one will be
flying into the depths of space.

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We can only speculate about the
exciting discoveries it will make.

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Stay tuned!

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Meanwhile, creative engineers
come up with revolutionary designs

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for new telescopes all the time.

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In Canada, scientists have built a
so called "liquid mirror telescope".

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In this kind of telescope, the starlight
is reflected not by a solid mirror,

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but rather by the curved surface of a
rotating reservoir of liquid mercury.

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Because of their design, mercury
telescopes can only look straight up,

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but their advantage is they're
relatively cheap and easy to build.

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Radio astronomers want to put a
LOFAR-like array of small antennas

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onto the surface of the Moon,

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as far away as possible from
terrestrial sources of interference.

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Who knows, one day there might
even be a big optical telescope

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on the far side of the Moon.

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Using space telescopes
and occulting discs,

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X-ray astronomers hope to improve their
eyesight tremendously in the future.

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They may even succeed in imaging
the very edge of a black hole.

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One day, the telescope may answer

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one of the most profound
questions puzzling humanity:

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are we alone in the Universe?

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We know that there are other
solar systems out there.

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We suspect there are even planets
like Earth with liquid water.

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But... is there life?

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Locating such extra-solar
planets proves difficult.

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They're often hidden from astronomers by the
intense light radiated by their mother stars.

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Interferometers launched into the darkness
of space may provide a novel answer.

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Right now NASA is considering a project
called the Terrestrial Planet Finder.

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And in Europe, scientists are
designing the Darwin Array.

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Six space telescopes
orbit the Sun in formation.

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Lasers control their mutual
distances to the nearest nanometre.

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Together they have
incredible resolving power,

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cancelling out the light
from overbearing stars

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so scientists can actually see
Earth-like planets around other stars.

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Next astronomers must study the
light reflected by the planet.

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It carries the spectroscopic
fingerprint of the planet's atmosphere.

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Who knows, in 15 years
time we may detect

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the signatures of
oxygen, methane and ozone.

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The signposts of life.

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The Universe is full of surprises.

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The sky never ceases to impress.

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No wonder that hundreds of thousands
of amateur astronomers across the globe

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go out every clear night
to marvel at the cosmos.

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Their telescopes are much better
than the instruments used by Galileo.

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Their digital images even
surpass the photographic images

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taken by professionals
just a few decades ago.

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Astronomers' quest for
cosmic understanding,

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their telescopic exploration of
the Universe, is only 400 years old.

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There's still a lot of
uncharted territory out there.

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We've come a long way since
Galileo began charting the heavens

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with his telescope four centuries ago.

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Today, we still observe the
Universe with telescopes,

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not only from Earth but in
the limitless regions of space.

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The seed of humanity lies in our seemingly
endless supply of ingenuity and curiosity.

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We have just begun answering some
of the greatest questions conceived.

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We have charted over 300 planets
around other stars in our own Milky Way

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and located organic molecules on
planets around far flung stars.

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These incredible discoveries may seem
like the zenith of human exploration,

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but the best is
undoubtedly yet to come...

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You too can join the discoveries.

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Look up and wonder.

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Thank you for joining me in this
last episode of the special series.

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And I hope you've enjoyed our small
tour of the history of the telescope.

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This is Dr. J
signing off for the Hubblecast.

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Once again, nature has surprised us
beyond our wildest imagination...

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Hubblecast is produced
by ESA / Hubble

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at the European
Southern Observatory in Germany.

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The Hubble mission is a project
of international cooperation

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between NASA and
the European Space Agency.