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Does anybody know what the path is to performing some kind of spectroscopy on this planet? Detecting molecules that might indicate life - water, ozone?
by TTPrograms 11y ago
Does anybody know what the path is to performing some kind of spectroscopy on this planet? Detecting molecules that might indicate life - water, ozone?
- valarauca1 11y agoWhen the planet passes in front of its host star, you can measure the change in the stars spectrum, the new chemicals that aren't normally present in a star are assumed to be the planet's. Telescopes that can do this are still a tiny bit away reality I think.
- goodcanadian 11y agoThis can be done now with bright enough stars. The trouble is that the stars in the Kepler field are typically very far away, and thus not really bright enough to do these sorts of studies. Spectroscopic observations of exoplanets have occurred with nearer and brighter targets.