Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory reported that they have discovered as many as 32 new planets-naturally, outside the Solar system.
The discovery was made through the HARPS spectrograph , a high-precision planet finder located in Chile. The instrument searches for them, identifying anomalies in the movement of stars.
If the star has satellites, then, rotating around, they affect it-make it oscillate. The star changes the speed. And these fluctuations accurately captures HARPS. Only with the help of their amazing instrument, scientists have already discovered 75 planets in 30 star systems. And all of them found about 400. "We are on a path that will eventually lead us to the discovery of life and other planets like ours," said one of the authors of the discovery, astronomer Stephane OUDRY from the University of Geneva.
A suitable candidate is already there. The planet
Gliese 581 d is in the habitat zone-located similarly to the Earth so that it can be water in liquid form. We'll catch them with a microscope! Many scientists suspect that there is some life on Europa-the amazing moon of the giant Jupiter. And it is hidden in the ocean, which is covered with a thick crust of ice. There NASA intends to send automatic devices. It is for the search for life. At least primitive.
Canadian researchers have already figured out how to see it-European life -. Almost with my own eyes. And even without delivery to the Earth of samples of local water. Hans Kreuser and Manfred Jericho built a holographic microscope that, when submerged in water, is able to detect any living creatures in it.
The main trick of the device is the laser. A passing bacterium or someone else, falling into its beam, creates a diffraction pattern. And it is transformed into a hologram, which, in turn, is photographed by the camera. The images are sent to Earth for analysis and reconstruction of the detected object.