One of the key criteria for supporting life, the presence of water, can be impossible to determine from great distances, even using the most advanced telescopes. This prompted the team to determine a ‘new way’.
“We used the High Resolution Imager telescope on Deep Impact to look at Earth from tens of millions of miles away - an 'alien' point of view - and developed a method to indicate the presence of oceans by analyzing how Earth's light changes as the planet rotates” commented Nicolas B. Cowan, of the University of Washington. “This method can be used to identify extrasolar ocean-bearing Earths."
To simplify, the team looked at the reasons why the sky appears blue to us on Earth, and how sky under ocean is bluer than sky under land.
"What we studied in this paper was how that blue color changes in time: oceans are bluer than continents, which appear red or orange because land is most reflective at red and near-infrared wavelengths of light. Oceans only reflect much at blue (short) wavelengths," explained Cowan.
The full research paper can be found in the August 2009 issue of the Astrophysical Journal
Out of this world
Meet some of our Role Models working with space technology.
You’ve read it. Now review it.
Date Published: May 27, 2009
More by this source
|
Print
|
Send to a friend
|
Rate & Comment
|
Keep up to date
If you found this item fun or informative, please let others know. Simply send to a friend or recommend it to even more people - on any of the following sites:
Latest Science News | reddit | digg.com | del.icio.us | rollyo | stumbleupon
More on space...
How far the moon?
According to a House of Commons Committee report, ‘A Space Policy’, the UK’s involvement in space programmes brings sizable economic and commercial benefits, but these benefits are under threat from the lack of ‘home-grown’ talent, reports Owen Holdaway.
Spacemen call up Earth and ask for a plumber
It is the question astronauts are asked the most: just how do you go to the toilet in space? For the three crew on the international space station, this is no longer a humorous, lavatorial question; they have had to call mission control and ask for a plumber.
Spacewoman falls to Earth on charge of trying to kill love rival
It took Lisa Nowak 12 days, 18 hours, 37 minutes and 54 seconds, travelling a distance of 5.3 million miles, to secure her place last July in one of the world's most elite clubs: voyagers to space. It took her about 14 hours, and a journey of 950 miles, on Monday to destroy it.
