Conjoined space telescopes could see alien worlds


	Conjoined space telescopes could see alien worlds

wildcat

2-2-2008 7:24 AM

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tags:

alien worlds, habitable zone

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/da0192d1-7f02-4dc8-ab6f-38fb4f1026a5/1234446F-EB8E-4491-A310-F55E9109067F/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13263-conjoined-space-telescopes-could-see-alien-worlds.html" href="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13263-conjoined-space-telescopes-could-see-alien-worlds.html" style="font-size: 11px;">space.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13263-conjoined-space-telescopes-could-see-alien-worlds.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/space.newscientist.com/img/9BE7BA3F-60DF-46C3-86CF-8A1C3466C85A" alt="A pair of telescopes joined together in space could spot planets in the habitable zone around nearby stars (Image: NASA)" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13263-conjoined-space-telescopes-could-see-alien-worlds.html"><P>A pair of infrared telescopes attached together in space could determine the chemical makeup of alien planet atmospheres at a fraction of the cost of NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF), which has been delayed indefinitely, a new study says.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13263-conjoined-space-telescopes-could-see-alien-worlds.html"><P>Such a mission could see planets inside the so-called habitable zone of stars, the region where the temperature is right for liquid water to exist. It would not be able to see planets as small as Earth, however, since it would use mirrors 1 metre across – half the size of those envisioned for TPF, reducing its light-collecting ability, and its telescopes would be fixed much closer together, reducing its resolution. The best SPFFI could hope for would be to see so-called <A href="http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg19225821.900-anatomy-of-a-superearth.html">super-Earths</A>, which are a few times our planet's size, Danchi says.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13263-conjoined-space-telescopes-could-see-alien-worlds.html"><P>The mission could also reveal a wealth of information about many of the 200 or so known exoplanets, most of which have only been detected indirectly by the gravitational tug they exert on their parent stars.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/1234446F-EB8E-4491-A310-F55E9109067F/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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