SCIENTISTS will be looking for three major signs that could mean there is extraterrestrial life on a planet in NASA’s alien search project called Habitable Worlds Observatory
A workshop at California Institute for Technology held this week discussed what to look for in HWO and how current technologies could be incorporated.
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Reports on the workshop were made by Live Science.
HWO’s main objective, which is also called The Habitable Extraplanet Observatory (HWO), consists of searching for evidence of life on other planets and materials.
“The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) is a concept for a mission to directly image planetary systems around Sun-like stars,” NASA The project is explained.
“HabEx will be sensitive to all types of planets; however, its main goal is, for the first time, to directly image Earth-like exoplanets, and characterize their atmospheric content,” it added.
Dimitri Mawet, a member of a team managed by Caltech for NASA explained it is crucial to prepare for HWO’s use.
“Before we can design the mission, we need to develop the key technologies as much as possible,” Mawet said in a The following is a statement by the spokesperson.
The technology is maturing. “We are in a phase of technology maturation.”
SIGNS OF ALIENLIFE
It was concluded that oxygen, methane and water vapor would be needed, as well as other chemicals.
“We want to probe the atmospheres of these exoplanets to look for oxygen, methane, water vapor, and other chemicals that could signal the presence of life,” NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program chief technologist, Nick Siegler, said in a statement.
CLUE WE WON’T SEE
They will also not be searching for aliens as they are depicted in the media.
“We won’t be seeing little green people, but rather the biosignatures or spectral fingerprints of these important chemicals,” Siegler explained.
In general, all the researchers were able to gain a deeper understanding of how HWO might be able to detect extraterrestrial life.
Mawet continued, “The workshop has helped us identify where our technologies are lacking and what we can do to improve them in the coming years.”