Wednesday, May 27, 2009

How to identify other "pale blue dots"...

in nearby solar systems: New Technique Could Find Water On Earth-like Planets Orbiting Distant Suns. More here.

The spacecraft utilized in the Deep Impact mission to comet Tempel 1 in 2005 is still functioning and is imaging Earth from a distance, obtaining spectra of our rotating planet that is dominated by oceans. Scientists will use this spectral "signature" to identify other ocean worlds during on-going exoplanet surveys.

Isn't science cool?

UPDATE: Related comprehensive article: The New Exoplanetology.

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