Here is a bit more background on their initial tests and expectations:

Scientists are conducting desert tests of the technology on Earth. They’re using the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona to model a starshade’s ability to help future instruments find and characterize rocky, Earth-like alien worlds.

A starshade may be used on NASA’s potential Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), a space-based instrument that would feature a primary mirror 8 feet (2.4 meters) wide, the same size as that of the agency’s iconic Hubble Space Telescope.

I’ll take a bet that we will find signs of life outside of our solar system before we find it inside our solar system,” Warwick concluded.

This could be really exciting.  What if this is the missing key in not only detecting potential exoplanets but also in detecting communications?

What do you think?

thanks to space.com for the great info

thanks to northrop grumman for the pic