I remember speaking with an astronomer around 20 years ago, shortly after the first exoplanets had been found. I asked him when he thought we would actually be able to take images of them. I won’t say he scoffed at the idea exactly, but he certainly didn’t sound hopeful, explaining that the difference in brightness between an exoplanet and its host star is so great, and they appear so close together from our vantage point on Earth, that it would be essentially impossible to split them apart.
Fast forward to 2015, and it’s no longer looking so unthinkable. Already, nine exoplanets have been imaged, at least in a crude sort of way. And as our article (‘The Next Blue Dot’, p.32) describes, scientists are working on new technologies that hold…
