Project Blue Sets Sights on "Pale Blue Dots" around Alpha Centauri

If you wanted to build a space telescope to see another Earth orbiting another star—in the words of Carl Sagan, another “pale blue dot” that could be searched for signs of life—how big and expensive would such a telescope be? Just a decade ago the answer boiled down to “too big” and “too expensive,” leading NASA and other space agencies to postpone for at least a generation plans to build giant, budget-busting observatories to snap pictures of Earth’s possible cosmic doppelgangers. Now, however, a consortium of privately funded research institutions is offering a markedly different conclusion. For less than $50 million, the effort’s planners say, a telescope small enough to fit in the trunk of a compact car could launch by the end of the decade on a historic mission to image another Earth-like planet. They call the plan Project Blue.