The plan she is working on calls for a two - part instrument, a space telescope and an «external occulter,» a movable starshade that flies in front of the telescope to block out the starlight and bring the planet into view. (discovermagazine.com)
A too - small occulter could make sunlight bend right into the camera. (sciencenews.org)
So telescopes have oversized occulters, blocking a disk with a radius about twice that of the sun. (sciencenews.org)