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[i]The telescope’s short length means its camera could have the wide field of view necessary to inspect large areas of the sky for supernovae. Even bigger advantages come, astronomers say, from the fact that the telescope’s diameter, 94 inches, is twice as big as that contemplated for Wfirst, giving it four times the light-gathering power, from which a whole host of savings cascade. Instead of requiring an expensive launch to a solar orbit, the telescope can operate in geosynchronous Earth orbit, complete its survey of the sky four times faster, and download data to the Earth faster. Equipped with a coronagraph, which blocks light from the sun’s disk to look for exoplanets, another of Wfirst’s goals, the former spy telescope could see planets down to the size of Jupiter around other stars. If it sounds almost too good to be true, it might be, cautioned Adam Riess, one of the three dark energy Nobelists, who noted that a thorough estimate of the new mission’s costs had not been done yet. But still, he said, “When someone hands you a hand-me-down like that, you have to be excited,” Dr Riess said. “They’re not sitting around at Walmart.”[/i]
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