s there life outside our planet?
The age-old question has long been asked by scientists and researchers without much progress in finding the answer.
There have been more than 4,200 exoplanets discovered outside our solar system, and while past techniques were developed to test for life on exoplanets, none of which tested for complex, non-technological life like vegetation. Now, space telescopes may soon be able to directly view these planets—including one within the habitable zone of the Earth's nearest star neighbor. With the help of these telescopes and a team of researchers in informatics and astronomy at Northern Arizona University, an answer to this question might not be so out of this world.
Funded by a NASA Habitable Worlds grant, a team of researchers, which includes Chris Doughty, David Trilling and Ph.D. student Andrew Abraham, published a study in the International Journal of Astrobiology that develops and tests a technique to determine whether specifically multicellular or complex-but-not-technological life can be uniquely detected outside the solar system.
In an attempt to find some answers, the team turned to one of Earth's most common multicellular life forms—trees. More specifically, their shadows.
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