According to the latest data from astronomers, approximately 30% of the discovered planets can be habitable.
“As recent observations have shown, a large number of a number of small planets orbit virtually all small stars. Approximately 30% of them, as shown by our calculations, must be inhabited. In other words, every third system is a potential carrier of extraterrestrial life, - said the representative of the research group Matteo Brogy from the University of Colorado in Boulder (USA).
He stressed that after the launch of the Kepler orbiting telescope, the researchers managed to identify almost 2 thousand planets outside the solar system, among which several dozen are potential Earth twins or are within the so-called life zone.
The discovery of new celestial bodies led to the fact that planetary scientists and astrobiologists began to create new methods that would assess the suitability of exoplanets for life or try to find its traces by studying their atmosphere.
And they proposed a rainbow method that would reveal the presence of life on distant planets. To do this, it is necessary to combine the data on its spectrum obtained by shooting in low and high resolutions, which will provide information on the composition of its atmosphere.
According to the researchers, life changes the planet's atmosphere by enriching it with oxygen, methane or other biogenic gases, Svopi reports. Therefore, the spectrum of the planet is changing: special lines appear in it, which are characteristic of chlorophyll, the main photosynthesizing pigment of the usual flora, or other substances that are contained in large quantities in the organisms of living beings.