British astronomers launch advanced planet search to look for signs of life

Robotic telescopes in Chile's Atacama desert will conduct Next Generation Transit Survey to analyse atmospheres for cluesThe art of hunting planets has come so far that astronomers can now list hundreds of alien worlds that orbit stars so faint they are not even visible as pinpricks in the clear night sky.Little is known of these far-flung planets. The most conspicuous are huge, the size of Jupiter, and scorched from circling so close to their suns. Others are giant iceballs, or waterworlds, or even rocky like Earth. But the finer details are a mystery, the stuff of speculation more than science.To find out more about these other worlds, a team led by British astronomers is launching an ambitious search for planets that orbit the nearest, brightest stars to Earth. Their aim is to find prime candidates for the most important question of all: is there life elsewhere?"In the end, this is about understanding our place in all this around us. Why are we here? What are the chances that similar things can occur elsewhere? What range of life is there?" says Don Pollacco, a planet hunter at the University of Warwick. "We are at a point in history where we are close to being able to answer these questions."Construction work on the £2m Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) starts early this year when the first of a dozen robotic telescopes is hauled to the top of the 2,635-metre (8,645ft) Paranal mountain in Chile's Atacama desert. The isolated site is home to several other facilities, ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Astronomy Americas World news guardian.co.uk Alien life UK news Science Chile Space Source Type: news