Will you be able to use your studies to help humans? And will the telescope be powerful enough to see planets in other

Question: Will you be able to use your studies to help humans? And will the telescope be powerful enough to see planets in other galaxies millions of miles away from ours?
- Keywords:
  planet,
  space,
  telescope
Asked by Freya to Anna on 12 Nov 2014.
- Anna Scaife answered on 12 Nov 2014:
  
  Hi Freya – the great thing about radio astronomy is that it really pushes the bounds of modern technology. In the past it has been used to produce all kinds of things that we now use every day – like wifi, that was invented by radio astronomers, and the way you can use GPS on your phone, a lot of that was based on radio astronomy research. I think the things we are doing now will have a massive impact on how we move data around the world – streaming films, sending email, making online phone calls – because the technology we work on is very similar for processing radio telescope data.
  
  As for finding planets – the new telescope should definitely be able to find lots in our own Galaxy, so let’s start there!

Question: Will you be able to use your studies to help humans? And will the telescope be powerful enough to see planets in other galaxies millions of miles away from ours?