Mapping exo-planets using the Sun as a gravitational lens (science video).

Using the Sun to gravitationally lens an exoplanet will turn the Sun into the most powerful telescope in our solar system.

Plans are underway at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to send solar sails to the solar gravitational lens focus zone, to take the first ever fully mapped images of an exoplanet’s surface, and do it within our lifetime.

This way, we’ll know which are the nice planets to invade first, I guess!