Search for extraterrestrial life more difficult than thought
A new study from
the University of Toronto Scarborough suggests that finding extraterrestrial
life may be much more difficult than imagined. The leader of the study, UTSC Assistant
Professor Hanno Rein that the methods that are currently used to detect
biosignatures on planets may raise false alarms. If multiple chemicals, such as
methane or oxygen are present in an exoplanet, it is believed that there was or
is life. But the team that worked on the study says otherwise. They affirm that
a lifeless planet with a lifeless moon can mimic the same results as a planet
with detection of biosignature. "You wouldn't
be able to distinguish between them because they are so far away that you would
see both in one spectrum," says Rein.
Rein says that
the resolution that would be needed in order to properly measure the
biosignatures of exoplanets is almost impossible, even with technology getting
better through the years. Rein says that you would need a really large
telescope, about one hundred meters, and it would need to be constructed in
space. Rein says, "This telescope does not
exist, and there are no plans to build one any time soon." Researchers use
several models to estimate the atmosphere of the planet but Rein says that, "We
can't get an idea of what the atmosphere is actually like, not with the methods
we have at our disposal." Rein believes that we should continue to search
for life in our own solar system and continue to search for life on nearby
stars.
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