"The lightsail will travel faster than any previous spacecraft, with potential to eventually open interstellar distances to direct spacecraft exploration." Scientists at the California Institute ...

A team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology devised a means of measuring the thin membranes of a lightsail, helping prove out a futuristic travel concept first imagined by ...

What is the Diffraction Limit? The diffraction limit is a fundamental barrier in optical microscopy that sets the minimum size of features that can be resolved using conventional light microscopes. It ...

But a higher-energy version of this phenomenon could use a ground- or space-based laser beam to push a lightsail on a spacecraft in a more directed way. With the beam providing a source of ...