ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Photon sieve

Alright kiddo, let me explain what a photon sieve is. So, you know what a sieve is, right? It's like a small metal object that has tiny holes in it. We use sieves to sort things, like if we have a box of different sized marbles, we can pour it through the sieve and the smaller ones will fall through the holes while the bigger ones stay on top.

Now, imagine if we had a sieve made out of light instead of metal. That's what a photon sieve is! It's made up of really tiny holes that are arranged in a specific pattern. When light (which is made up of tiny particles called photons) shines through the Photon Sieve, it gets diffracted or bent and creates a pattern.

Photon Sieves are really useful because they can create very sharp and clear images, even better than what regular lenses can do. They're also used in things like space telescopes, where they need to gather lots of light without being too big and heavy.

So that's what a photon sieve is, a special kind of sieve made of light that helps us see really cool things in space!