Now, an effective way to hunt other planets for signs of life.

ISLAMABAD, June 13, 2009 (Balochistan Times) --The hunt for finding alien life outside the solar system has just got easier thanks to astronomers who claim to have found an effective way to search the atmospheres of other planets for signs of life. Using the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma, a team at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias has gathered information about the chemical composition of the atmosphere of the Earth from sunlight that has passed through it, BBC reported. When a planet passes in front of its parent star, part of the starlight passes through that planets atmosphere and contains information about the constituents of the atmosphere, providing vital information about the heavenly body itself. This is called a transmission spectrum and even though the astronomers cannot use exactly the same method to look at the Earths atmosphere, they were able to gain a spectrum of our planet by observing light reflected from the Moon towards the Earth during a lunar eclipse. According to the astronomers, the spectrum not only contained signs of life but these signs were unmistakably strong. It also contained unexpected molecular bands and the signature of the Earths ionosphere. Lead astronomer Enric Palle said: Now we know what the transmission spectrum of a inhabited planet looks like, we have a much better idea of how to find and recognise Earth like planets outside solar system where life may be thriving. The information in this spectrum shows us that this is a very effective way to gather information about the biological processes that may be taking place on a planet. Added team member Pilar Montaes-Rodriguez: Many discoveries of Earth-size planets are expected in the next decades and some will orbit in the habitable zone of their parent stars. Obtaining their atmospheric properties will be highly challenging; the greatest reward will happen when one of those planets shows a spectrum like that of our Earth.

(THROUGH ASIA PULSE)