A New Study from NASA Reveals What May Be Preventing Humanity from Finding Extraterrestrial Life.
Unintentionally, many exoplanets may have thrown “optical bombs” into the telescopic systems of Earth, completely obscuring the signs of life that we are eager to discover.
Graphic illustration of an “Earth-like” planet in another star system – (Image: NASA)
This conclusion comes from a research team led by Dr. Prabal Saxena from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Optical bombs” or “planetary light bombs” are actually a type of severe light pollution that the optical data from telescopes can encounter.
If extraterrestrials were to observe Earth and Mars, or Earth and Venus from a favorable location far away, they could also be hit by a similar optical bomb—where the light is distorted, making the two planets appear as a single object.
This optical bomb is essentially “wandering” light, bounced from a nearby planet to the one we wish to observe. However, with current exoplanet observation techniques—primarily based on the spectrum of objects to understand their properties and search for chemical signs of life or other components… this light can completely ruin everything.
For instance, distorted light can obscure the chemical signatures of a compound representative of life, leading us to “see” it as a different compound when examining the spectrum.
Therefore, the research team suggests several measures that planetary scientists should implement when studying any distant planet. This could involve using multiple astronomical observation systems to check the same area or simply using a single telescope but observing over an extended period. The more data collected, the easier it becomes to distinguish between genuine light and noise.
