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NASA Claims Soon it can Detect Vegetation on Exoplanets

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Jonathan

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Nov 18, 2017, 9:15:02 PM11/18/17
to talk-o...@moderators.isc.org


If vegetation exists on one, of course.
To be launched mid-2019...


JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE


Webb And Exoplanets

One of the main uses of the James Webb Space Telescope will be to
study the atmospheres of exoplanets, to search for the
building blocks of life elsewhere in the universe.
But Webb is an infrared telescope. How is this good for
studying exoplanets?

Webb will also carry coronagraphs to enable direct imaging
of exoplanets near bright stars. The image of an exoplanet
would just be a spot, not a grand panorama, but by studying
that spot, we can learn a great deal about it. That includes
its color, differences between winter and summer, vegetation,
rotation, weather...How is this done?
The answer again is spectroscopy.

Why is an infrared telescope key to characterizing the atmospheres
of these exoplanets? The benefit of making infrared observations
is that it is at infrared wavelengths that molecules in the
atmospheres of exoplanets have the largest number of spectral
features. The ultimate goal, of course, is to find a planet
with a similar atmosphere to that of Earth.
https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/



And at the latest Astrobiology Conference attended by
over...800 researchers, it's clear they're gearing
up for the 'game of the millennium' who is first
to find signs of life elsewhere.

Check out the incredible amount of research taking
place in anticipation the next great space telescope.



Astrobiology Science Conference 2017
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/abscicon2017/pdf/program.pdf


















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