Perhaps, but we are still dealing with the challenge that the light of a star completely dominates the light from planets nearby. Telescopes like the James Webb

Perhaps, but we are still dealing with the challenge that the light of a star completely dominates the light from planets nearby. Telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope schedule for launch in 2018 should be able to filter out the starlight and theoretically perform spectroscopy on the planetary light, which could reveal biomarkers like oxygen in the atmosphere.