SIM Lite (Space Interferometry Mission Lite), currently under development, will determine the positions and distances of stars several hundred times more accurately than any previous program. This accuracy will allow SIM to determine the distances to stars throughout the galaxy and to probe nearby stars for Earth-sized planets. SIM will open a window to a new world of discoveries.

This breakthrough in capabilities is possible because SIM will use optical interferometry. Pioneered by Albert Michelson, who became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in physics in 1907, optical interferometry can fulfill its full potential only outside the distorting effects of Earth's atmosphere. There, it can combine light from two or more telescopes as if they were pieces of a single, gigantic telescope mirror. Developed for use in space with SIM, this technique will eventually lead to the development of telescopes powerful enough to take images of Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars and to determine whether these planets sustain life as we know it.

SIM is being developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under contract with NASA and in close collaboration with industry partner Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California.

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