Search For ET Just Got Easier: Effective Way To Search Atmospheres Of Planets For Signs Of Life

sciencedaily ^

[JoeProBono]

Astronomers using the Science and Technology Facilities Council's (STFC) William Herschel Telescope (WHT) on La Palma have confirmed an effective way to search the atmospheres of planets for signs of life, vastly improving our chances of finding alien life outside our solar system. The team from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) used the WHT and the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) to gather information about the chemical composition of the Earth's atmosphere from sunlight that has passed through it. The research is published June11 in Nature.

When a planet passes in front of its parent star, part of the starlight passes through the planet's atmosphere and contains information about the constituents of the atmosphere, providing vital information about the planet itself. This is called a transmission spectrum and even though astronomers can't use exactly the same method to look at the Earth's atmosphere, they were able to gain a spectrum of our planet by observing light reflected from the Moon towards the Earth during a lunar eclipse. This is the first time the transmission spectrum of the Earth has been measured.

[JoeProBono]

[brytlea]

Did you take that picture Joe??

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[JoeProBono]

YeP

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[GeronL]

we can detect what an atmosphere is made of in another solar system??

[Dallas59]

What about around the White House?

[pepperdog]

All we know about that place so far is that it is definitely alien and the atmosphere is deadly to freedom loving humans.

[tricky_k_1972]

You can analyze the spectrum of the light as it exits the atmosphere around the planet and remove the information from that spectrum that is purely from the star and tell the makeup of the atmosphere from whats left over.

If an atmosphere has oxygen water and from the orbit you are able to tell it is in the zone for liquid water you can further postulate that it could support life. If the atmosphere contains methane and the planet is old enough you can further postulate that it contains life.

[GeronL]

A few years ago we couldn’t even find these worlds. Cool.

[Dallas59]

Intelligent life???

[brytlea]

You are really good, I’d love to get a shot like that! ;)

[tricky_k_1972]

Now that the Keppler space telescope is on line things just got alot more exciting. With Keppler we have the first real opportunity of finding and analyzing terrestrial planets in the right zone for life. We could by the end of this decade have found our first life bearing planet outside our solar system. Truly exciting times to be alive.

[GeronL]

Is Keppler the one that follows Earth?

[tricky_k_1972]

Yes, it is in what astronomers call an Earth-trailing solar orbit. This is so that Earth does not occlude the stars which are observed continuously and the photometer (instrument for measuring light intensity) is not influenced by stray light from Earth. This orbit avoids gravitational perturbations and torques inherent in an Earth orbit, allowing for a more stable viewing platform.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks JoeProBono.

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[SunkenCiv]

oops.

Glimpse of Earth as seen from afar
- Lunar eclipse paints portrait of Earth that could aid...
Nature News | 10 June 2009 | Eric Hand
Posted on 06/11/2009 11:19:55 PM PDT by neverdem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2270186/posts