Telescopes Probe Planets for Life

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Science

How rare are inhabited worlds in the universe? The 'LIFE' space telescope fleet could find out

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A new mission concept would see a fleet of telescopes probing rocky planets in their stars' habitable zones.

The mission concept proposes for four space telescopes to fly in formation around a central "combiner" spacecraft.

The team employed a Bayesian statistical model to find the smallest number of exoplanets LIFE would need to observe to yield a firm answer as to how common inhabited worlds are.

The study was published on April 7 in The Astronomical Journal .

With luck, if the LIFE mission or something similar ever goes ahead, it will find a planet with life of some variety.

But even if it doesn't, the results could still be profound and take us one giant leap closer to understanding our place in the universe.

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