NASA Telescope Could Detect Alien Oceans Rainbows — SkimNews
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- Habitable Worlds Observatory will launch in the 2040s with a coronagraph to block starlight, enabling direct imaging of Earth-like exoplanets as single pixels.
- Eleanor Cornish and Tyler Robinson found that ocean 'glint' — light reflecting off alien seas — should be detectable when a planet’s phase angle exceeds 120 degrees.
- Cornish stated that glint signatures can indicate liquid water, a key marker of planetary habitability.
- Sophia Vaughan suggested the telescope might also detect non-ocean features such as clouds, vegetation, or even rainbows due to focused light reflection.
- Vaughan expressed hope that the observatory could one day capture the glint of an alien ocean within her lifetime.
Why it matters: The ability to detect surface reflections like ocean glint or rainbows would give astronomers direct observational evidence of habitable conditions on exoplanets, shifting the search for life from indirect biosignatures to visible planetary traits. This raises the scientific value of precise phase-angle measurements in mission design, directly influencing how NASA engineers optimize the telescope’s optics over the next two decades.
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