The Biggest Telescope on Earth Could Detect Life Around Other Stars in a Matter of Hours

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Perched at almost 10,000 feet above sea level on Cerro Armazones mountain in Chile’s Atacama Desert, a team of scientists and engineers are building the world’s largest visible light and infrared telescope: the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). This colossal instrument, when finished, will gather 100 million times more light than the human eye can perceive. Furthermore, it may have the ability to determine whether life exists on distant exoplanets.

The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is anticipated to start functioning and capture its initial images in 2028, following approximately 12 years of building, with a cost exceeding one billion dollars. This telescope stands roughly 12 miles from the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), which is situated on the summit of Cerro Paranal mountain.

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The location selected boasts an ideal height, ensuring that the telescope sits well above most atmospheric disruptions. This area has minimal water vapor in the air and is situated far from urban lights. The summit of Cerro Armazones stands tall, dry, and devoid of light pollution, creating optimal conditions for observing the cosmos.

The main mirror system will span 128 feet or 39 meters, enabling it to collect a higher amount of light and offer superior detail compared to any other Earth-based telescope. Instead of one large mirror, this system is composed of 798 hexagonal segments, each measuring 5 feet across. To facilitate maintenance, repair, and replacement, a total of 949 segments were manufactured. Beyond providing high-resolution images of distant objects, the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) might also be capable of directly observing rocky planets orbiting other stars and detecting signs of life in different star systems.

How the Extremely Large Telescope could detect alien life

On the television show “SYFY’s The Ark,” 100 years from now, humanity launches a fleet of spacecraft to neighboring stars, such as Proxima Centauri, the closest star to ours. Upon reaching their destination, the crew aboard Ark One is entrusted with founding a colony and securing our species’ survival, but only if they can make it there safely.

As a space-enthusiast gamer, I’m all hyped up about the present-day astronomers leveraging the ELT (Extremely Large Telescope). This bad boy could potentially reveal if life already dwells at Proxima Centauri and beyond. The secret here lies in mastering the art of interpreting light. You see, when starlight from a parent star filters through an alien planet’s atmosphere, certain frequencies get absorbed while others sail on unscathed. This is why we experience sunsets and gaze upon skies tinted blue.

As astronomers examine the light traversing distant planetary atmospheres, they can analyze the specific wavelengths (absorption lines) in the light spectrum and deduce the composition of those atmospheres. On Earth, life forms contribute significantly to our atmosphere by generating oxygen, creating a distinctive ‘biological signature’ that extraterrestrial intelligences might identify from afar. Earth-based astronomers aspire to accomplish similar identification with the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT).

Although the telescope is still under construction, scientists have recently devised a simulation to predict its potential capabilities upon completion. The findings, published on arXiv, indicate that the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) could potentially identify signs of extraterrestrial life on neighboring exoplanets within hours.

Researchers mimicked the Eye-Like Telescope’s (ELT) observational process by providing multiple scenarios for sub-Neptune and Earth-sized exoplanets. These scenarios encompassed positive indicators, possible biosignals, and false findings within their atmospheres. They further investigated various forms of life, some comparable to what might have existed on early Earth. In the course of simulating observations for Proxima Centauri, they discovered that it could deliver a conclusion with just 10 hours worth of observation period.

As an enthusiastic observer, I’m thrilled to share that the researchers’ findings imply we might dismiss the possibility of a sub-Neptune atmosphere around Proxima Centauri b within just an hour of observation! Furthermore, under the most favorable conditions, they propose that we could detect two potential biosignature pairs, O2/CH4 and CO2/CH4, in approximately 10 hours.

There’s good cause to believe that Prox b is lifeless and inhospitable for humans (not forgetting its potential dangers), but the very same exploration methods could be applied elsewhere to examine the chemical makeup of exoplanets. If fortune favors us, we may discover signs of other life forms existing somewhere else.

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2025-03-25 23:17