Quote:
Originally posted by zephyr46@Sep 9 2004, 04:12 AM
I have heard of atmospheric spectrum being taken as planets cross their stars, any chance of this with HD 28185b?
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I really like your paper though. Very well written, now brace yourself for the critics 
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Thank you and everyone else for the great replies!
Regarding your question, I believe that determining the atmosphere the way you discussed is being done through the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) mission that I mentioned in my article. Professor Maggie Turnbull is putting together a list of planets to do this test on, and my point is that HD 28185b deserves to be on that list--I haven't seen the full list, so I don't know if it's on, but I don't believe it is because they are mainly concentrating on smaller "terrestrial" planets. But my assertion is that even if the probability is small that it has a breathable atmosphere, everything else about this planet is almost tailor-made for terrestrial life that we can't afford NOT to find out. So I'm spreading the word, hoping to add HD 28185b on the list of planets that this test will be conducted.
Thanks again!