“It’s almost like a robot. Perhaps it will be necessary to go there once a year to program something, but the observations will be controlled from Portugal,” explained physical engineer Alexandre Cabral, from the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Lisbon.

The group, made up of specialists from the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, with members from the universities of Lisbon and Porto, will depart on Saturday, 14 March, for the Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert, where they will spend three weeks installing the new telescope, presented as an instrument with an unprecedented level of detail.

The equipment, called POET (Paranal Solar EXPRESSO Telescope), was partly built in the University of Lisbon's science laboratories.

“Things were tested in Portugal, part of the structure was manufactured in Italy,” revealed the same source.

Data collection

Scientists expect the telescope to begin collecting its first data on 8 April and to contribute to a better understanding of what is happening in stars, exoplanets, and star systems similar to Earth.

“We will get to know our sun better, and we will be able to study some exoplanets better,” indicated Alexandre Cabral, who will be part of the mission.

According to the researcher, more than discovering new exoplanets, the team hopes to obtain more information about existing ones: “At this moment, nearly 6,000 exoplanets have already been detected in our galaxy. What we intend now is not so much to discover more, but to study those that are most similar to Earth, where there is a greater probability of life existing.”

Understanding the stars

The telescope developed in Portugal will be installed at an altitude of 2,600 meters at one of the largest astronomical observatories.

According to the researcher, all other telescopes at the Paranal Observatory are prepared to observe galaxies and stars at night.

"It's very difficult to understand some things that happen in stars because there's a lot of noise caused by the planet itself. Basically, it's almost like using the sun as a guinea pig for other stars," he added, describing the instrument's functions.

"We will get to know our sun better, and we will be able to study some exoplanets better. All these developments are always a step forward from what already exists. Later, it always brings many results," said the engineer.

The researcher added that this will be the only telescope capable of observing sunlight with such precision.

"At the moment, there is no instrument capable of doing the same."

Alexandre Cabral exemplified that the development of many cell phone cameras began with astronomy, with investments in sensors that became commonplace technology.