Is there other life in the universe and on other planets?

By Jonah Hansen
April 17 2022 - 5:30am
Artist impression of the LIFE mission concept. Picture: LIFE Initiative
Artist impression of the LIFE mission concept. Picture: LIFE Initiative

Previously we talked about the search for habitability on other worlds: ideally, we need to take reflected light from a planet, disperse it into a rainbow called a spectrum, and use that to identify what atoms and molecules are in the atmosphere if it has one. Unfortunately, getting the light from a planet, known as "direct imaging", is very difficult due to the star being billions of times brighter than a planet, and because trying to physically separate a planet from its star on an image is like trying to spot a 50c coin in Sydney from Canberra.

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