'Wind-Ruffled Waves, Foam and Wave Shadows, Above Natural Blue Seawater.' This is how we'll Spot Exoplanets With Oceans

, a space telescope concept being developed by NASA, will both be able to measure polarized light. Numerical models like the ones in this study will be used to design the instruments and observation procedures needed to sense the polarization of light reflected by exo-oceans.. The image below compares theThis figure from the study compares the degree of polarization of reflected starlight from cloud-free dry planets vs. cloud-free ocean planets. In the left column, as is surface albedo, where 0.

If—or hopefully when—we discover an exoplanet with an ocean, it’ll be a landmark event. The space science community is pretty confident they’re out there and hold a strong possibility of supporting life. Hints of exo-oceans turn up when scientists measure an exoplanet’s density vs its size. But as it stands, there’s no way of knowing for sure if we’re detecting a surface ocean.

These researchers have been working on the problem of detecting exo-oceans for a while now and have publishedtackling the issue. If their simulations are correct, we may be developing a reliable way of detecting ocean worlds at great distances. The E-ELT is due to see first light around 2027 and it will be capable of detecting polarized starlight reflected from oceans.

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