The Colors of Life on Distant Planets ⚡ экспресс
Original: "Habitable Worlds Observatory Living Worlds Working Group: Surface Biosignatures on Potentially Habitable Exoplanets"
The future HWO telescope will track down life by color patterns on faraway worlds
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An astronomer from another system, looking at Earth, would notice a greenish hue from its forests—a surface biosignature. In a similar way, the future HWO telescope will search for the "paints" of bacteria and plants on distant worlds. Even if the atmosphere keeps its secrets, the surface color can tell of ancient life.
🎯 Earth's oldest life-paints: a green bacterial pigment, 1.1 billion years old, still found in ancient rocks.
🎬 In "Avatar," the glowing jungles of Pandora are powerful color signals of life. The HWO telescope will hunt for such cosmic paints.