The Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (Lapan) has promised to start researching exoplanets and life outside the solar system in 2021.
“The media uses the term ‘search for extraterrestrial life’, but the technical term is looking for habitable exoplanets,” said Lapan chairman Thomas Djamaluddin. Jakarta Post Wednesday.
Research projects on exoplanets – planets orbiting distant stars – will first start in Indonesia after the construction of the Mount Timau National Observatory in Kupang Regency, East Nusa Tenggara.
Considered the largest observatory in Southeast Asia, the facility began construction in 2017 under the partnership of Lapan, the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Nusa Cendana University in Kupang and the local government.
Construction is expected to be completed in 2021.
“First, [construction] It was supposed to be late 2020, but it was postponed to 2021 due to several issues, including road access and the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Thomas.
With a state-of-the-art telescope 3.8 meters in diameter, the observatory will further assist astronomers in their hunt for exoplanets that can host life like planet Earth, he added.
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Data collected by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite reveals that astronomers have discovered more than 3,000 exoplanets outside the solar system after 20 years of observations on land and in space.
TESS recently discovered the first possible habitable zone, an Earth-sized planet called TOI-700d, located 102 light-years from Earth. It could potentially hold liquid water and have an atmosphere that could support life.
With the new astronomical observatory center in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia will soon join other countries in the hunt for habitable zone exoplanets.
Thomas claims that exoplanet hunting is just one of many upcoming Lapan projects, which will also provide astronomy education to the public through the new observatory center.
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