Overall, Seager says, "I'm excited, because I feel like we're really on the verge of understanding the biosignatures on exoplanets.

"We're gathering all the tools we need to make predictions and guide design of the instruments that will actually do the job of finding signs of life."

3 Comments

1. 1. Ronnie 11:15 AM 7/30/12

   Cassini satellite administrator @twitter# Carolyn Porco‏@carolynporco in a conversation said it is impossible on to spectrally chemical compounds.
   June 14,2012 she said:
   Carolyn Porco‏@carolynporco
   @uforonnie @sciam And that sounds like rubbish to me!
   @uforonnie Not mad at all. Just not buying it. You can't spectrally and remotely distinguish life forms
   ufothinktank‏@uforonnie
   
   @carolynporco Using Electron color Organic chemical have specific color wavelengths that are identifiable spectrally as Atoms are 100% pure
   Carolyn Porco‏@carolynporco
   Light collected by the TPF and separated into its component wavelengths, or spectra, could reveal the presence of bio-signatures. Water vapor, oxygen and methane in the atmosphere of an exoplanet would offer evidence of a life-friendly environment as well as biological processes akin to photosynthesis and respiration on Earth, notes Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley.
   I must add I have evidenced this spectrally in images of Titan using True Electron microscopic imaging Infrared and Ultraviolet light filters. For carolynporcoto say it is impossible was like talking to a 15th centruy scientists who told Columbus the world is flat and it is impossible to circumnavigate the world?
   Let us all learn from this that anything is possible and we must keep an open mind to all things.
   Ron Nussbeck

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2. 2. MamaTe 11:20 AM 7/30/12

   I think , the most interesting species would talk to us. Or explore us and our planet earth...Nice artikle...

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3. 3. Torbjörn Larsson, OM 07:48 AM 3/20/13

   Impossible to tease out much of the first comment, except that possibly someone is confusing identifying specific life forms (eg plant analogs, which can have different photouptakes) with identifying biospheres.

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