we ve long fantasised about the possibility of life on other planets. but it was only in 1995 that we found the first planet outside our solar system. these exoplanets are hard to find. of course they are, they re relatively tiny. and so far they ve mainly been detected indirectly, either by the incredibly slight dimming of a star s light as a planet moves in front of it, or by the wobble of the star caused by something orbiting it. in the last 20 years we ve detected about 2000 exoplanets, but we haven t actually seen many at all. this is why. well, the planets are very, very faint compared to a star and they re very close to a star. the kind of planets where we might find life, an earth like planet orbiting a star would be 10 billion times fainter than a star. but if you can see the planets, you can start to look for evidence of life on their surfaces. what you need is something to block out the light of a star. what you need is a star shade. due to go into space in the mid