But it would take a telescope with the effective diameter of the sun to actually take photographs of something the size of an elephant strolling on an exoplanet only 4.3 light-years away.

WHEN the Sloan Digital Sky Survey started work in 2000, its telescope in New Mexico collected more data in its first few weeks than had been amassed in the entire history of astronomy.

They buy used lab equipment online, convert webcams into US$10 microscopes and incubate tubes of genetically engineered Escherichia coli in their armpits.