When one thinks of the word telescope, the word that almost automatically precedes it is “Hubble”. Built in the 1970’s and launched in 1990, the Hubble has been the standard for space telescopes in recent years, but like all great things, change is in store for the scientific and telescope with the arrival of the latest technology, the Aragoscope.

The Aragoscope (who’s name derives from French scientist Francois Arago), is the latest project in space technology happening at University of Colorado Boulder. Not only does Aragoscope have the potential to be 1000 times sharper than the Hubble telescope, but it’s also expected to bring crisp high resolution images at a much lower cost. It’s unusual to have lower cost and higher quality go hand-in-hand in the science world, but in Aragoscope’s case, it seems to be valid.

The Aragoscope boasts a half-a-mile wide disc in front of  its orbiting space telescope. Even though its size is unprecedented, its sleek design is as well. The Hubble telescope had limited size dimensions from the start, due to the space shuttles that accompanied it in the 1970s. With the growth of new technology in the space field, its high time that a new player came into the space telescope game.

In June of 2014, Aragoscope was one of 12 proposals approved for NASA’s Innovative Advanced concept program. The goal of the developers at University of Colorado Boulder for this massive telescope is to progress deeper into space than scientists ever believed possible. The Aragoscope is an evolution of Hubble, taking its best features and enhancing  them as much as possible to continue the mission to find another Earth-like planet in some faraway universe. The dream has always been the same, but now we have the technology that someday could make it a reality.