New Earth-like planets will soon be discovered after scientists achieve technological breakthroughs.
Physicists have developed an astronomical comb that can analyze the blue-green light emitted by stars.
Celestial combs can detect tiny changes in the light of stars produced by orbiting exoplanets (planets outside our solar system), potentially revealing conditions similar to those on Earth.
They are mainly limited to the green-red part of the spectrum, but the new system offers the opportunity to discover more space secrets.
The breakthrough was achieved by physicists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and the University of Cambridge.
Dr Samantha Thompson said: “This is a hugely exciting development that will allow us to study smaller planets in longer orbits than ever before, with the aim of discovering the first planets orbiting nearby planets of this size. ‘Earth-like’ planets orbiting the Sun’s star.” Cambridge.
Derek Reid, a professor at Heriot-Watt University, said the shorter wavelengths of light the new system could detect were “rich in the atomic absorption features that are of interest to astronomers”.
Professor Reid added: “Our new method provides for the first time a continuous sequence of optical signatures from ultraviolet to blue-green as a precise wavelength scale for this part of the spectrum.”
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The technology is being developed for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) being built in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
It will have a 39-meter-long primary mirror and will be the world’s largest visible and infrared telescope.
The British team will also develop an astronomical comb for telescopes in South Africa and the Canary Islands.
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