Scientists use single-pixel images of the Earth to better understand exoplanets



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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"/>

from dawn to dusk in 10 narrow-band channels, from ultraviolet to near-infrared.These measurements can be used to determine ozone, aerosols, cloud heights, the dust, volcanic ash NASA / DSCOVR

able to determine several facts on the planet from these single-pixel images, such as the clouds of water in the atmosphere and its rotation rate

"The advantage of using the Earth as a proxy for an exoplanet is that we can verify our findings. from mono-pixel data with the wealth of data that we actually have for Earth – we can not do it if we use data from a real and distant exoplanet, "said Jonathan Jiang, l & 39; lead author of the study, which was published in Astrophysical Journal.Jian is also an atmospheric and scientific climate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California

Currently, Jiang uses climate data to Continuing development in exoplanet studies Now these exoplanets are much lighter than stars and also much more difficult to spot, for example the Earth is about 10 billion times weaker than the Sun. Scientists have detected more than 3,700 exoplanets so far, only 45 of them have been spotted by direct imaging.

NASA's new study shows that if we can observe an exoplanet with discrete characteristics over a long period; it would be possible to evaluate the rate of rotation of this planet by monitoring a repeated pattern in reflected light. "People have been talking for some time about using this approach to measure the turnover rate of exoplanets, but there is no demonstration that it could work because we did not have Real data. "This period appears, which means that this approach to measuring the rotation of planets is robust," said exoplanet scientist Renyu Hu of NASS JPL and co-author of the study.

This new study should help scientists better understand the exoplanets and who know, soon they will succeed to find us also extraterrestrial neighbors!

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