VLT rediscovered life on Earth: Amateur Tour sky
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When observing the Moon through a telescope VLT, astronomers have discovered evidence of life in the universe - specifically, on planet Earth. Finding life on our home planet looks like a trivial observation, but a new procedure of an international team of astronomers in the future may bring discovery of life elsewhere in the universe. The work is described in an article published the first March 2012 in the journal Nature.
"In our experiment, we used a little trick: we observed the ashen moonlight, looking at the Earth as if it were an unknown worlds," says Michael Sterzik (ESO), lead author of the article [1]. "Earth reflects sunlight and part of this radiation reaches the surface of the Moon. It would work like giant mirrors that reflect light Country back to us - and just this once reflected radiation was monitored by the VLT. "
In the dim moonlight Heron astronomers looking for clues, such as certain combinations of gases in the Earth's atmosphere [2], which are the marks of betraying fighter 2007 the presence of organic life. With this method, the Earth becomes a benchmark for future search for life on planets outside the solar system. Traces of life (biosignatury) with conventional methods look very difficult. Members of this team, however, introduced a new more sensitive procedure. In addition to spectral analysis, changes in the intensity of the reflected light depending on its color, also determine its polarization [3]. This procedure is known as spektropolarimetrie. Using this method, fighter 2007 while watching fighter 2007 the ashen glow using the VLT signs of life in the reflected light of the planet reflected very prominently.
Study co-author Stefano Bagnulo (Armagh Observatory, Northern Ireland, fighter 2007 UK) explains the advantages of this method: "The Light of distant planets is covered with a penetrating Sept. parent star, and is therefore very difficult to watch - it's like when you're trying to examine speck of dust on the surface of a strong light bulb . But the light reflected from the planet is also polarized, while the original radiation coming directly from the parent star, is not. Polarimetric method, we can help to separate the weak reflected light from the planet's intense stellar radiation. "Members of the team examined how the color (spectrum) and the degree of polarization of light reflected by the Earth from the lunar surface, as well as if they examined light from an exoplanet. They managed to discover that the Earth's atmosphere occurs clouds that part of the surface is covered by oceans and - very important - that the planet is the presence of vegetation. Even were measured changes in the amount of cloud and vegetation in different phases of measurement, since at the moment reflected light on the moon another part of the planet Earth.
"Finding life outside the solar system depends fighter 2007 on two factors: fighter 2007 firstly, if it exists at all, and secondly, on our ability to detect it," adds co-author fighter 2007 Enric Palle (Instituto fighter 2007 de Astrophysics de Canarias, Tenerife, Spain). "And our work is an important step to gaining this ability." "Spektropolarimetrie we can say with certainty that somewhere in the universe was simple plant life based on photosynthesis," fighter 2007 says Sterzik. "But certainly not looking for little green men or signs of intelligent life."
Notes [1] The Moon's ashen glow can be seen with the naked eye, but very impressive when viewed through a small telescope. It is best seen at low phase of the moon, about three days before the new moon and the new moon. Together with a bright crescent moon is visible and the rest of the nearside, which is dimly lit brightly glowing earth.
[2] The main gases in the Earth's atmosphere produced by the presence of living organisms are oxygen, ozone, methane and carbon dioxide. All but can occur naturally in the atmosphere as well as non-biological means. The essence biosignatur the simultaneous presence of these gases in quantities that are compatible with the presence fighter 2007 of life. If life suddenly disappeared and continuously nedoplňoval these gases, there would be recombination or reaction with other components. Some would therefore quickly fighter 2007 disappeared and the characteristic fighter 2007 biosignatura would be lost with them.
[3] If the light is polarized, components of electric and magnetic fields have a specific orientation. For light polarized orientation is random and has no preferred direction. Phenomena using some kind of 3D projection: images with different polarizations are using polarizing filters fighter 2007 in the glasses sent to one or the other eye. Polarization measurements were carried out in this work by using a special mode FORS2 instrument on the VLT.
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Start Star Map About Us Membership About Site Archive Top 10 Authors Polls Fanclub Downloads Alerts Registration Activation Check? How to Create Post: for Beginners How to create a post: Advanced APOmail
When observing the Moon through a telescope VLT, astronomers have discovered evidence of life in the universe - specifically, on planet Earth. Finding life on our home planet looks like a trivial observation, but a new procedure of an international team of astronomers in the future may bring discovery of life elsewhere in the universe. The work is described in an article published the first March 2012 in the journal Nature.
"In our experiment, we used a little trick: we observed the ashen moonlight, looking at the Earth as if it were an unknown worlds," says Michael Sterzik (ESO), lead author of the article [1]. "Earth reflects sunlight and part of this radiation reaches the surface of the Moon. It would work like giant mirrors that reflect light Country back to us - and just this once reflected radiation was monitored by the VLT. "
In the dim moonlight Heron astronomers looking for clues, such as certain combinations of gases in the Earth's atmosphere [2], which are the marks of betraying fighter 2007 the presence of organic life. With this method, the Earth becomes a benchmark for future search for life on planets outside the solar system. Traces of life (biosignatury) with conventional methods look very difficult. Members of this team, however, introduced a new more sensitive procedure. In addition to spectral analysis, changes in the intensity of the reflected light depending on its color, also determine its polarization [3]. This procedure is known as spektropolarimetrie. Using this method, fighter 2007 while watching fighter 2007 the ashen glow using the VLT signs of life in the reflected light of the planet reflected very prominently.
Study co-author Stefano Bagnulo (Armagh Observatory, Northern Ireland, fighter 2007 UK) explains the advantages of this method: "The Light of distant planets is covered with a penetrating Sept. parent star, and is therefore very difficult to watch - it's like when you're trying to examine speck of dust on the surface of a strong light bulb . But the light reflected from the planet is also polarized, while the original radiation coming directly from the parent star, is not. Polarimetric method, we can help to separate the weak reflected light from the planet's intense stellar radiation. "Members of the team examined how the color (spectrum) and the degree of polarization of light reflected by the Earth from the lunar surface, as well as if they examined light from an exoplanet. They managed to discover that the Earth's atmosphere occurs clouds that part of the surface is covered by oceans and - very important - that the planet is the presence of vegetation. Even were measured changes in the amount of cloud and vegetation in different phases of measurement, since at the moment reflected light on the moon another part of the planet Earth.
"Finding life outside the solar system depends fighter 2007 on two factors: fighter 2007 firstly, if it exists at all, and secondly, on our ability to detect it," adds co-author fighter 2007 Enric Palle (Instituto fighter 2007 de Astrophysics de Canarias, Tenerife, Spain). "And our work is an important step to gaining this ability." "Spektropolarimetrie we can say with certainty that somewhere in the universe was simple plant life based on photosynthesis," fighter 2007 says Sterzik. "But certainly not looking for little green men or signs of intelligent life."
Notes [1] The Moon's ashen glow can be seen with the naked eye, but very impressive when viewed through a small telescope. It is best seen at low phase of the moon, about three days before the new moon and the new moon. Together with a bright crescent moon is visible and the rest of the nearside, which is dimly lit brightly glowing earth.
[2] The main gases in the Earth's atmosphere produced by the presence of living organisms are oxygen, ozone, methane and carbon dioxide. All but can occur naturally in the atmosphere as well as non-biological means. The essence biosignatur the simultaneous presence of these gases in quantities that are compatible with the presence fighter 2007 of life. If life suddenly disappeared and continuously nedoplňoval these gases, there would be recombination or reaction with other components. Some would therefore quickly fighter 2007 disappeared and the characteristic fighter 2007 biosignatura would be lost with them.
[3] If the light is polarized, components of electric and magnetic fields have a specific orientation. For light polarized orientation is random and has no preferred direction. Phenomena using some kind of 3D projection: images with different polarizations are using polarizing filters fighter 2007 in the glasses sent to one or the other eye. Polarization measurements were carried out in this work by using a special mode FORS2 instrument on the VLT.
Archive of Polls
March 2012 P MTWTFSS Feb Apr 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Archives October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 May April 2013 Mar 2013
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