ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

A new NASA telescope that will give humans “the largest, deepest, and clearest picture” of the universe since the Hubble Space Telescope could find up to 1,400 new planets.

Scientists from the Ohio State University have conducted a study to estimate the potential reach of the new Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFirst) mission.

The researchers said that although the mission is still in its planning stages, the new telescope could pave the way for a more accurate and focused search for extraterrestrial life on worlds outside our solar system.

WFirst was designed by Nasa and astronomers to find new planets and research dark energy, a theoretical form of energy believed to be responsible for the acceleration of the universe.

NASA's Insight Lander - In pictures 14 show all NASA's Insight Lander - In pictures 1/14 This illustration made available by NASA in October 2016 shows an illustration of NASA's InSight lander about to land on the surface of Mars. AP 2/14 Artists impression of the Insight lander on Mars NASA 3/14 This composite photo was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s. In our solar system family, Mars is Earth's next-of-kin, the next-door relative that has captivated humans for millennia. The attraction is sure to grow on Monday, Nov. 26 with the arrival of a NASA lander named InSight. AP 4/14 This undated image obtained from NASA and taken by the Mars Odyssey orbiter shows the target landing site for NASA's InSight lander in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars. AFP/Getty Images 5/14 An artist's impression made available by NASA shows an illustration of NASA's InSight lander probing the 'Inner Space' of Mars. EPA 6/14 A full-scale replica of NASA's Mars InSight, a robotic stationary lander that marks the first spacecraft designed to study the deep interior of the Red Planet REUTERS 7/14 Bruce Banerdt, InSight Principal Investigator, NASA AP 8/14 NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green talks about Mars InSight during a social media briefing Getty Images 9/14 Artists impression of the Insight lander on Mars NASA 10/14 The solar array of the Insight lander undergoing tests in the lab Marina Behabetz/Lockheed Martin via NASA 11/14 Lockheed Martin via NASA 12/14 Pat H. Corkery/Lockheed Martin via NASA 13/14 Pat H. Corkery/Lockheed Martin via NASA 14/14 Insight lander undergoing tests in the lab NASA 1/14 This illustration made available by NASA in October 2016 shows an illustration of NASA's InSight lander about to land on the surface of Mars. AP 2/14 Artists impression of the Insight lander on Mars NASA 3/14 This composite photo was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s. In our solar system family, Mars is Earth's next-of-kin, the next-door relative that has captivated humans for millennia. The attraction is sure to grow on Monday, Nov. 26 with the arrival of a NASA lander named InSight. AP 4/14 This undated image obtained from NASA and taken by the Mars Odyssey orbiter shows the target landing site for NASA's InSight lander in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars. AFP/Getty Images 5/14 An artist's impression made available by NASA shows an illustration of NASA's InSight lander probing the 'Inner Space' of Mars. EPA 6/14 A full-scale replica of NASA's Mars InSight, a robotic stationary lander that marks the first spacecraft designed to study the deep interior of the Red Planet REUTERS 7/14 Bruce Banerdt, InSight Principal Investigator, NASA AP 8/14 NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green talks about Mars InSight during a social media briefing Getty Images 9/14 Artists impression of the Insight lander on Mars NASA 10/14 The solar array of the Insight lander undergoing tests in the lab Marina Behabetz/Lockheed Martin via NASA 11/14 Lockheed Martin via NASA 12/14 Pat H. Corkery/Lockheed Martin via NASA 13/14 Pat H. Corkery/Lockheed Martin via NASA 14/14 Insight lander undergoing tests in the lab NASA

"We want to know what kind of planetary systems there are," said Matthew Penny, lead author of the study and postdoctoral researcher in the Ohio State Department of Astronomy.

"To do that, you need to not just look where the obvious, easy things are. You need to look at everything."

The mission will build on the work of the Kepler deep-space telescope mission, which ended on October 30 last year and found more than 2,600 planets outside our solar system in four years of searching.

Of those, 49 planets were said to lay in the so-called Goldilocks zone - the area around a star that is neither too hot or too cold and could sustain complex life.

"Kepler began the search by looking for planets that orbit their stars closer than the Earth is to our Sun," Mr Penny said. "WFIRST will complete it by finding planets with larger orbits."

To find the planets, WFirst will use gravitational microlensing. This relies on the gravity of stars and planets to bend and magnify the light coming from stars that are behind them from the telescope’s viewpoint.

The effect is connected to Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and allows a telescope to find planets orbiting stars thousands of light-years away from Earth.

But, because the effect only works when the gravity of a planet or star bends the light from another star, the effect from any given planet or star is visible for only a few hours once every few million years.

WFirst will spend “long stretches of time” continuously monitoring 100 million stars at the centre of the galaxy.

However, the upshot is that the new telescope will be able to map the Milky Way and other galaxies 100 times faster than the famous Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched in 1990.

The WFirstmission, with a budget of around $3.2 billion,(£2.42 billion) will scan a small piece of the universe - about 2 square degrees - at a resolution higher than any similar mission in the past.

This will allow WFirst to see more stars and planets than any previous organised search.

"Although it's a small fraction of the sky, it's huge compared to what other space telescopes can do," Mr Penny said.

So far, scientists have discovered about almost 700 planetary systems containing more than one planet as well as discovering some 4,000 planets.

But even though humans have searched galaxies near and far for signs of life, the search mostly has found planets that are closer to their stars than Earth is to our Sun.

The study is published in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.