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Despite millions of light-years between us and most of the exoplanets, we can not only better spot them, we are now able to understand what they are made with better accuracy. And although scientists at the Keck Observatory would like to find biosignatures of extraterrestrial life, they may have found the second best thing: water in the atmosphere of one's own. distant gas giant called HR 8799 c.
HR 8799 is about seven times the size of Jupiter and had to contain a lot of methane. Instead, scientists have found a lack of methane and a surprising amount of water in the atmosphere of the planet. According to Ji Wang, lead author of the new study: "Currently, with Keck, we can already learn about the physics and dynamics of these giant exotic planets, which look nothing like our own planets of the solar system. now some more about the lack of methane on this planet. "
The key to their discoveries was a method called "adaptive optics," which uncovered other major astronomical discoveries, such as the fact that many supermassive black holes undergo "hidden fusions" in collisions of galaxies across the cosmos . According to ESO, adaptive optics is "[s]Sophisticated and deformable mirrors controlled by computer [that] can correct in real time the distortion caused by the turbulence of the Earth's atmosphere. "
In other words, scientists bypass the problems caused by the earth's atmosphere by installing a satellite in orbit, but adaptive optics allows them to capture incredibly sharp images with ground-based telescopes. The images taken with HR 8799 c are a major step for imaging exoplanets and studying their composition, which can help scientists in search of life. "This type of technology is exactly what we want to use in the future to look for signs of life on a terrestrial-type planet," said Dimitri Mawet, one of the authors of the study. . "We are not there yet but we are moving forward."
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