March 19, 2009
JWST Will Provide Capability to Search for Biomarkers on Earth-like Worlds
Written by Nancy Atkinson
Does another Earth exist somewhere in our galaxy? With the recent lauch of the Kepler spacecraft, astronomers are getting closer and closer to finding an Earth-sized planet in an Earth-like orbit.
But once that search succeeds, the next questions driving research will be: Is that planet habitable? Does it have an Earth-like atmosphere? Answering those questions will not be easy.
But the telescope up for the task is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), set for a planned launch in 2013.
Two researchers recently examined the ability of JWST to characterize the atmospheres of hypothetical Earth-like planets, and found this is the telescope that would be able to detect certain gases called biomarkers, such as ozone and methane, for close Earth-size worlds.
See our related article: Q&A with Dr. John Mather on JWST.
http://www.universetoday.com/2009/03/19/jwst-will-provide-capability-to-search-for-biomarkers-on-earth-like-worlds/
Space/Science » in reply to Maybe not directly see the aliens, but...
JWST Will Provide Capability to Search for Biomarkers on Earth-like Worlds
The whole thread (25 posts)
- How to narrow the search for ETI
- Look at it in reverse. Figure out what we would need to do to TRANSMIT a signal to another life form.
- The best way to search for ETI
- That's logical...
- re: How to narrow the search for ETI
- The only problem is...
- Did you see the Benfords' papers?
- "Alien" life might be right here on Earth now