"The media uses the term ‘search for extraterrestrial life', but the technical term is the search of habitable exoplanets," Lapan head Thomas Djamaluddin told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The project to search for exoplanets – planets orbiting distant stars – will begin for the first time in Indonesia following the construction of the National Observatory on Mount Timau in Kupang regency, East Nusa Tenggara.

Touted to be Southeast Asia's largest observatory, the facility started construction in 2017 under the partnership of Lapan, the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), the University of Nusa Cendana in Kupang and the regional administration.

Construction is expected to be completed in 2021.

“At first, [construction] was expected to finish by 2020, but it was postponed until 2021 due to several issues, including road access and the COVID-19 pandemic,” Thomas said. 

With an advanced telescope 3.8 meters in diameter, the observatory would further help astronomers in their hunt for exoplanets that may host life like planet Earth, he added.

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Data collected by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite reveals that astronomers have found more than 3,000 exoplanets outside the solar system after 20 years of ground and space-based observations.

The TESS recently found the first possible habitable zone, an Earth-sized planet named TOI-700d, located 102 lightyears away from Earth. It could potentially be home to liquid water and have an atmosphere that could sustain life.

With the new astronomical observatory center in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia will soon join other nations in the hunt for habitable-zone exoplanets. 

Thomas asserted that the hunt for exoplanets was only one of several upcoming projects for Lapan, which would also provide public education in astronomy through the new observatory center.