There will be a new chapter in the search for extraterrestrial life this month when the most powerful space telescope built will start looking at planets that are outside our solar system. The atmospheres of some of the planets may be revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope.
It would be amazing to identify an atmosphere in a solar system. There is a chance that one of these atmospheres will give a signal of life itself.
Megan Mansfield is an astronomer at the University of Arizona. We won't be able to identify life immediately.
Earth is the only planet in the universe where life exists. For the past 60 years, scientists have been sending probes to Mars. It is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 Some scientists hold out hope that Venus might be home to Venusians.
Even if Earth is the only planet in our solar system that has life, there are other planets in the universe.
The first exoplanet was spotted in 1995 The exoplanet, known as 51 Pegasi b, was an unpromising home for life because it was a giant gas giant.
More than 5,000 other exoplanets have been discovered by scientists. Some of them are more similar to Earth in that they are made of rock rather than gas and are in a "Goldilocks zone" around their star, not so far as to be frozen.
The relatively small size of these exoplanets makes them difficult to study. Astronomers will be able to look more closely at these worlds thanks to the telescope, which acts as a magnifying glass.
The telescope has traveled a million miles since it was launched from French Guiana. The 21-foot mirror has a shield on it to protect it from the sun or Earth. The telescope can detect faint, distant rays of light that could reveal new information about distant planets.
The study of exoplanet atmospheres is taken into account in the design of the space telescope.
The first images from the telescope will be released on July 12 and were taken in June.
The program's lead scientist said that exoplanets will be in the first pictures. Dr. Smith looked at the first images of the telescope to see how powerful it was.
After those quick looks, there will be a series of longer observations starting in July.
Astronomers are looking at seven planets that are in the vicinity of a star. According to earlier observations, three of the planets are in the right place.
It is an ideal place to look for traces of life outside of the solar system.
The habitable zone of Trappist-1 is closer to us than it is to it. It takes just a few days for the planets to circle the star. Scientists can ask if any of the planets have an atmosphere when the planets pass by.
If it doesn't have air, it's not a good place to live
Astronomers would not be surprised to find no atmospheres around the planets. Even if the planets had atmospheres when they formed, the star might have blasted them away with radiation.
It is possible that they could remove all of the atmosphere on a planet before it had a chance to form life. We want to know if these planets could have an atmosphere long enough to support life.
The light travelling from the star will be detected by the telescope.
Jacob Lustig-Yaeger said that looking at a solar eclipse with your eyes closed is similar to looking at a car wreck. You could have a sense that the light has gone out.
A planet with an atmosphere is dimmer than a bare planet. The star's light will pass through the atmosphere but the gases will absorb some of the light. The planet will dim Trappist-1 even more if the astronomer only looks at starlight at those wavelength.
These observations of Trappist-1 will be sent back to Earth. There is an email that says, "Hello, your data are available"
It will take a long time to comprehend the light coming from Trappist-1. Your eye is used to dealing with a lot of light. These telescopes are just collecting a small amount of light.
Astronomers will need to distinguish tiny fluctuations produced by the telescope's own machinery before they can analyze exoplanets passing in front of Trappist-1.
There is a lot of work that I do to make sure that we can see the tiny signals from the telescope.
There is a chance that at the end of those efforts, Dr. Mansfield and her colleagues will find an atmosphere around a planet. The nature of the atmosphere won't be revealed by that result. It could be similar to the toxic stew of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid found on Venus. Scientists have never seen a mix like that before.
Alexander Rathcke is an astronomer at the Technical University of Danes. We have ideas but we don't know. We have to check it out.
The J.W.S.T. may be able to determine the specific ingredients of exoplanet atmospheres because each kind of molecule absorbs a different wavelength of light.
The weather on the planets will affect those discoveries. Any attempt to find alien air would be ruined by a bright blanket of clouds.
It is difficult to tell between an atmosphere with clouds or no atmosphere.
Astronomers want to know if the exoplanets have water in their atmospheres. Water is an important part of biology. It would be a good place to start looking for life.
A watery atmosphere is not necessarily a sign of life. To be certain that a planet is alive, scientists need to detect a biosignature, molecule or combination of several molecule that is unique to living things.
A reliable biosignature is still being debated by scientists. Plants and algae make up the majority of the oxygen in the atmosphere of Earth. Oxygen can be produced when water in the air splits. Living microbes and volcanoes can release methane.
There is a chance that there is a balance of gases that can give a clear biosignature, one that cannot be maintained without the help of life.
In order to find these biosignatures, we need favorable scenarios. I'm not saying it's impossible. I don't think it's realistic. We need to be very fortunate.
Joshua Krissansen-Totton is a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
If anyone claims to have found life with J.W.S.T. in the next five years, I will be very skeptical.
It's possible that the space telescope won't be able to find biosignatures. It could take more than a decade for the next generation of space telescopes to be built. They will look at exoplanets the same way people look at Mars or Venus in the night sky, by observing starlight reflecting off them against the black background of space.
The groundwork for future telescopes will mostly be done by us. I would be surprised if J.W.S.T. delivered biosignature detections. This is what I'm doing for.
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