Experts have developed a new strategy for scanning exoplanets for biosignals. Now with the help of new instruments, scientists will be able to recognize such signs of life as oxygen molecules and methane.
It is reported that these chemicals do not naturally stick to each other because they bind to other chemicals that are abundant on Earth. Finding both of these chemicals on another planet would be a strong indicator of the presence of life. In two new articles to appear in Astrophysical Journal and Astronomical Journal, researchers at the California Institute of Technology have demonstrated how this new technique, called highly dispersive coronography, can be used to search for extraterrestrial biosignals with the planned 30-meter telescope, which after completion 2020s, will become the world's largest optical telescope.
The three planets are known to be in the "habitable zone," the region around the star where liquid water most likely exists on the rocky planet's surface. Other potentially habitable worlds have also been discovered in recent years. Using theoretical and laboratory models, the researchers show that their new technique can detect biosignals on Earth-like planets around M-dwarf stars. This strategy could also be used on stars such as the Sun using future space telescopes.
Svetlana Slavyanskaya