Researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh have produced a green laser device that is similar to laser pointers that sell for under £5, but emits light at a billion pulses per second, which helps produce what’s known as a frequency comb.
Professor Derek Reed, head of the Ultrafast Optics Group at Heriot-Watt University, said the laser has enormous potential to enable astronomers to discover small Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars, according to Metro.
According to the university, lasers reduce the cost, complexity, and power consumption of typical ultrafast laser systems by about 10 times.
Professor Reid believes it can help astronomers search for exoplanets orbiting stars outside the Earth’s solar system.
Astronomers have already identified thousands of stars that may be exoplanets, using space telescopes, but each must be confirmed by telescopes on Earth for small fluctuations in the color of the star’s light that are signs of an orbiting planet.
Professor Reed said: “These small changes in wavelength confirm the existence of a planet orbiting the Earth and provide its mass and orbital length.
He added: “The laser produces light made up of thousands of regularly spaced optical frequencies, known as a frequency comb. Like using a ruler to accurately measure distances, a frequency comb is the ‘wavelength rule’, which allows an astronomer to measure minute variations in wavelength.”
Since observations of exoplanets can take years of observing time, astronomers have proposed several dedicated telescopes that point to candidate stars, and lasers could become a basic unit in such systems.