According to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”, although scientists know 5,000 exoplanets and there are billions yet to be discovered within our Milky Way galaxy, we do not know much regarding the atmosphere of these distant places.
“In 1995, my colleague discovered [الحائز على جائزة نوبل] Didier Queloz is the first planet outside our solar system, and I expect within the 25-year time frame that life can be found outside our solar system.”
The James Webb Telescope, which was not built explicitly to view exoplanets but instead to view the oldest stars in the universe, released the first direct image of an exoplanet orbiting a distant star, gas giant HIP 65426 b, a planet more than 12 times the size Jupiter.
However, Cowans explained, Webb, despite the most powerful observatory ever set in space, is not powerful enough to be able to pick up smaller Earth-like planets that orbit close enough to their stars that liquid water is possible.
Sacha and his team are leading the development of a new Medium Infrared Imaging and Spectrograph (METIS) instrument, a unique instrument that will be part of the ELT.
The ground instrument is also being built by the European Southern Observatory in Chile, ELT, and, once completed at the end of this decade, will contain a 130-foot-wide mirror, making it the world’s largest optical telescope.
The astrophysicist stressed: “The primary goal of the instrument is to take the first image of a planet, potentially similar to Earth, around one of the closest stars,” adding: “We need to examine the atmospheres of these planets… We need an observational approach that allows us to take pictures of these planets.” planets”.
