Spectrum of Light Captured From Distant World

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Cosmos: "Astronomers have made the first direct capture of a spectrum of light from a planet outside the Solar System and are deciphering its composition. The light was snared from a giant planet that orbits a bright young star called HR 8799 about 130 light-years from Earth, said the European Southern Observatory (ESO). ... The find is important, because hidden within a light spectrum are clues about the relative amounts of different elements in the planet's atmosphere. 'The features observed in the spectrum are not compatible with current theoretical models,' said co-author Wolfgang Brandner. 'We need to take into account a more detailed description of the atmospheric dust clouds, or accept that the atmosphere has a different chemical composition from that previously assumed.' The result represents a milestone in the search for life elsewhere in the universe, said the ESO. Until now, astronomers have been able to get only an indirect light sample from an exoplanet, as worlds beyond our Solar System are called. They do this by measuring the spectrum of a star twice — while an orbiting exoplanet passes near to the front of it, and again while the planet is directly behind it. The planet's spectrum is thus calculated by subtracting one light sample from another."

In our lifetime...

[Hurricane78]

I always have to think, that it’s practically a sure thing, that we will see alien life forms doing their thing on their planet, in our lifetime.

With the current (as always exponential) rate of telescope development, we will get to a Google-maps-like resolution or even better. And meanwhile search as many of the previously in other ways detected planets an new planets for signs of life (e.g. non-natural structures and fast changes.)

Now if we narrow down to the right planets and spaces in the right solar systems, we will find life. Or what was once life. Maybe even life that is more advanced than ours.

Then it’s just a matter of setting up a video feed. Because I doubt that once life is found, anyone will dare to turn its eyes off of it for even a second, until we know very well what’s going on there.

I just wish that day would be today...

Forgive my cynicism

[BigBadBus]

...but I recall the excited, breathless publicity that occurred after a science team announced that they had captured spectroscopic details of a planet's atmosphere and announced that it contained sufficient sodium to give it a yellowish tinge...then a second team, trying to verify the findings of the first, found nothing! We should wait and see....