There is a different fan base for planetary photography that constantly keep seeking the aesthetics of the universal facets. Not just limited to the extrinsic aspects of the stars or the moons, this group further finds it exciting to learn the universal mechanism of such celestial bodies. However, has anyone thought of Earth’s ultimate mirror selfie! Well a new study comprising a team of researchers at CU Boulder directed by astrophysicist Allison Youngblood has set out to achieve something similar in planetary photography, which would additionally be something first of its own kind. The group of researchers have deployed the Hubble Space Telescope which gave a clear picture of Earth as if it were an exoplanet—or a world orbiting a star many light years from our own.
However, as fascinating as the study and its objective sounds, it was certainly not an easy job to capture Earth’s imagery as an alien world. The researchers, therefore, considered moon as a giant mirror, recording sunlight that had passed through our planet’s atmosphere, bounced off the lunar surface and further, came back. Talking about the similar research undertaken prior to this one, they too have provided a similar picture of the Earth as an exoplanet. However, the new research, which was recently issued, is probably the first to accomplish in taking such a selfie deploying a combination of a space instrument and the moon. Youngblood said that the group’s findings could one day help scientists to hone how they search distant planets for the possible fingerprints of life—in this case, ozone in the atmosphere.
“Ozone is what we call a biosignature. It is a byproduct of molecular oxygen, which can be a byproduct of life” as what told by Youngblood, who was a major frontier of the project as a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Over the past few years, scientists have proven the presence of more than 4,000 planets outside the solar system of Earth. Many of them were identified deploying a technique, what researchers claim to be the “transit” method (implying- a planet passes in front of its host star, causing the light from that star to dim ever so slightly).
This methodology has an additional advantage too, as what told by Youngblood. While exercising a potent enough telescope, just like Hubble in this case, on outside planet, one can realize how starlight filters through its atmosphere. Scientists, as a result of this, can evaluate that starlight so as to determine the gases that are present in the atmosphere.
