How does instrument engineering dictate the pace of astronomical breakthroughs regarding exoplanets?

Answer

If detectors become slightly more sensitive, hundreds of currently ambiguous exoplanet signals might be confirmed immediately.

The discovery and confirmation of exoplanets are fundamentally gated by the sensitivity of the instruments used for detection. Since the signals received from these distant worlds are incredibly weak, even a marginal improvement in detector performance can have a massive impact on scientific progress. If detector technology were to advance tomorrow, achieving even slightly greater sensitivity, astronomers could swiftly confirm signals that are currently too ambiguous or faint to definitively classify as a planet, demonstrating a direct causal link between instrument engineering capability and the speed of major astronomical discovery.

How does instrument engineering dictate the pace of astronomical breakthroughs regarding exoplanets?

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