Toliman Space Telescope

The TOLIMAN space telescope takes another step forward in planning for humanity’s interstellar journey, by identifying if there an Earth Analog in Alpha Centauri, our nearest neighbour star system. TOLIMAN is a low-cost, agile, and ambitious mission led by scientists at the University of Sydney School of Physics. By employing methods of astrometric detection, TOLIMAN is able to record the ‘wobble’ signal in the separation of binary stars caused by gravitational forces of a planet. The TOLIMAN payload is a 12.5cm space-based telescope which is now under construction. It will be carried by a 16U CubeSat bus and is scheduled to launch in 2024 into 550km sun-synchronous orbit around Earth. The mission is primarily funded by the Breakthrough Initiatives, which investigate the fundamental questions of life in the Universe: Are we alone? Are there habitable worlds in our galactic neighbourhood? Can we make the great leap to the stars? And can we think and act together – as one world in the cosmos?