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Scientists studied exoplanets to learn more about the evolution of the Earth and the existence or not of extraterrestrial life. The exoplanets, the planets that lie outside our solar system, are, however, extremely remote from us and it is quite difficult to get an idea of what is going on there. So, now, NASA has come up with a new study that uses our original planet to replace an exoplanet. It shows that even with the presence of very little light (a pixel), it is still possible to evaluate the significant characteristics of distant worlds.
This new study uses data from NASA's terrestrial polychromatic imaging camera. This instrument, EPIC, is embedded on the satellite DSCOVR (Deep Ocean Climate Observatory) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It travels around the Sun at point 1 of Lagrange, which is a special orbit that gives the EPIC a continuous view of the sun's sunny surface. EPIC has been operational since 2015. It has produced detailed maps of the surface of our planet in multiple wavelengths and has also contributed a great deal to climate and weather studies
. image of the reflected lights of the Earth. different lengths of wave or colors; whenever the instrument "takes a picture" of the Earth, it actually takes 10 pictures. The new NASA study averages each of the images into a single brightness value, which is the equivalent of a "single-pixel" image for each wavelength. This unique image of Earth's one pixel is able to provide very little facts about its surface. However, the authors of the article actually examined and studied a set of data containing single-pixel images, clicked several times a day on 10 wavelengths, over a long period of time [19659006EPIC"title="EPICThefaceoftheEarthfromsunrisetosunsetin10narrow-bandchannelsfromultraviolettonearinfraredThesemeasurementscanbeusedtodetermineozoneaerosolscloudheightdustvolcanicash"width="660"height="auto"tw="1200"th="823"/>
