"If arqueobacteria are the first forms of life to look for on Mars, how do we propose to find and recognize them?"
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Question
Now that an Earth-like planet has been found orbiting Gilese 581, what plans does NASA have to explore the possibilities of life on this planet?
The most straightforward approach would be to use a telescope to measure the spectrum of light reflected from this planet in order to search for biosignatures, such as the presence of oxygen in its atmosphere. However, this planet has not yet been seen telescopically, and it would be exceedingly difficult for any existing telescope to see it and measure its spectrum. For many years, NASA has studied a space telescope called the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF), described at tpf.jpl.nasa.gov/earthlike/earth-like.html and in Wikipedia, which would be capable of making such measurements for faint planets. Unfortunately, TPF is no longer in the queue of planned NASA missions. I won't be surprised, however, if astronomers find some clever way to use existing telescopes to obtain some spectral data on this new planet, perhaps at least to determine if it has any atmosphere. David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
May 2, 2007
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