Quote:
|
Originally Posted by tofu
Will any of the optical interferometers currently under construction be sensitive enough to detect free O2 in the spectrum of light reflected from an extra-solar planet?
|
The interferometer half of what are currently two Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) missions should be able to look for broad IR absorption from O2, as a practically automatic by-product of the spectral slicing needed for high-sensitivity interferometry - see
http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/tpf_book/index.cfm.
The other TPF mission now on the list is a single-aperture instrument with a shaped pupil mask which, if the primary mirror can be made smooth enough, would yield very high-quality coronagraphy and offer the chance for optical imaging strictly by reflected starlight (rather than in a spectral region where the thermal emission from the surface matters, as for the current multi-element interferometer designs).