Terrestrial Planet Finder to Find Earthlike Planets

Pictured are the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Terrestrial Planet Finder space telescopes.

NASA hopes to launch within ten to fifteen years the Terrestrial Planet Finder observatories which will work in space and study all aspects of planets outside the solar system, from their formation to their suitability to support life. The system is made up of two complementary observatories, a visible-light coronagraph (top) to be launched in 2014 and a formation-flying infrared interferometer (below) to launch before 2020.