Astronomers from Leiden University and the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON) think it may be possible to detect signs of extraterrestrial life within the next 25 years. Without the need for a space mission. Their article about this will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Astronomers have speculated for decades about how observations of exoplanets could provide proof of extraterrestrial life. They can already observe certain gases that are exhaled by organisms in the atmospheres of exoplanets, planets orbiting stars other than our sun. This idea, which has been around since the 1960s, has now been linked to a new observation method that uses relatively cheap flux collectors, large reflecting telescopes.
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