A NASA team is pushing an audacious plan to hunt for alien worlds by creating an artificial eclipse in space, placing a vast 'starshade' some 175,000 kilometres above Earth so ground-based telescopes can finally see planets hidden in the glare of distant stars.
Astronomers have already confirmed thousands of exoplanets, but most were spotted indirectly, by watching stars wobble or dim as planets pass in front of them. Directly imaging an Earth-like planet is far harder.
