Glint of Starlight Could Reveal Liquid Oceans on Exoplanets

[n2doc]

By Lisa Grossman September 3, 2010 | 2:54 pm | Categories: Space


The sparkle of starlight off water could be the clincher for finding oceans on extrasolar planets. And it could be observable with the tech that will be deployed in the next generation of space telescopes.

“A glinting planet looks different from a non-glinting planet, and it’s detectable with current technology,” said Tyler Robinson, a graduate student at the University of Washington and lead author of a new paper in Astrophysical Journal Letters. “This is one step toward proving there’s liquid water at the surface of an extrasolar planet.”

The proposed technique for finding wet worlds takes advantage of the same effect that makes sunsets on the Pacific coast so spectacular. The idea was suggested by Carl Sagan in 1993, and has been used to confirm the presence of liquid lakes on Saturn’s moon Titan.

“The oceans do a really good job of reflecting light like a mirror,” Robinson said. “Especially when you have the sun really low on the horizon, most of the sunlight comes reflected off of the water towards you. The same thing happens on the scale of a planet.”



Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/glint-exo-oceans/

[NickB79]

1. How was it used to detect liquid on Titan?

I thought the thick cloud cover made visual imaging of the surface impossible.

[n2doc]

2. Not too thick

See pic:

[AlecBGreen]

3. oceans of liquid hydrocarbons IIRC

methane, ethane, etc. NOT the kind of place you take a vacation

[txlibdem]

4. Methane oceans? Looks like another 100 years of burning fossil fuels!

:woohoo:



:sarcasm: <--- for the sarcasm-challenged