A mission to the focal area of the SGL (which lies beyond 548.7 astronomical unites (AU) on the line connecting the center of the exoplanet and that of our Sun, called the focal line of the SGL) carrying a modest telescope and coronagraph could deliver direct megapixel imaging and high-resolution spectroscopy of a habitable Earth-like exoplanet orbiting a host star at a distance of up to 30 parsec.

Above – Graphic depiction of Direct Multipixel Imaging and Spectroscopy of an Exoplanet with a Solar Gravity Lens Mission Credits: S. Turyshev

The remarkable optical properties of the SGL include major brightness amplification (~1e11 at lambda=1 um) and extreme angular resolution (~1e-10 arcsec) in a narrow field of view. The entire image of such an exo-Earth is compressed by the SGL into an instantaneous cylinder with a diameter of ~1.3 km in the vicinity of the focal line. Moving outwards while staying within the image, the telescope will take photometric data of the Einstein ring around the Sun formed by the light from the exoplanet and will process the data to reconstruct the image of the exoplanet with a few km-scale resolution of its surface, enough to see its surface features and signs of habitability.