Imaging Extrasolar Planets in more detail

[grokme]

Okay, this is probably a dumb question, but I'm going to ask anyway. Would it ever be possible to pull back images of an extrasolar planet that show more refined details such as mountains and oceans, or even possibly showing intelligent made structures such as the light pollution we see on Earth from space? Would a travelling scope that went closer to the edge of our solar system have a better chance of imaging such things?

 

[origin]

Okay, this is probably a dumb question, but I'm going to ask anyway. Would it ever be possible to pull back images of an extrasolar planet that show more refined details such as mountains and oceans, or even possibly showing intelligent made structures such as the light pollution we see on Earth from space?

It may be possible in the future to see if a planet has large oceans.

Would a travelling scope that went closer to the edge of our solar system have a better chance of imaging such things?

The distances are so great to the planets in question that moving to the edge of the solar system would make no difference at all.

 

[grokme]

Okay, I wasn't really thinking the distances would be helped. I was thinking of any obstructions if, say we were able to move out of the Oort cloud or whatever other materials might encumber the view. Please enlighten.

 

[thnkrx]

Several decades ago, there was a theoretical idea put forth to use the sun as part of the 'lens' of a telescope. The 'eyepiece' if I remember right would have been somewhere around the orbit of Jupiter. The claim was made that such a 'telescope' would be able to resolve features the size of continents on earth sized planets.

 

[grokme]

Wow, that's a cool idea.

 

[origin]

Okay, I wasn't really thinking the distances would be helped. I was thinking of any obstructions if, say we were able to move out of the Oort cloud or whatever other materials might encumber the view. Please enlighten.

There are no obstructions worth the kind of effort it would take to move to the edge of the solar system.

Edited to add: Here is a link that is an excellent source for extrasolar planets and should answer all of your questions.

 

[SpaceTas]

The required technology is just concepts at the moment, but it is physically possible to get a crude image.
We need an array of large space telescopes working as a giant nulling interferometer (a super Terrestrial Planet Finder)
But we don't know how to build this yet!

More informative would be spectra and spectropolarimetry. With these you you can tell a lot about the atmosphere (temperature clouds, pressure, dust and their height profiles), surface (desert, water, jungle), and signs of life (ozone, methane, plants, hydrocarbons/pollution from "cars") .... all can be mapped without an image as planet rotates.

Artificial radio emission would be nice
Mapping with a space based radio interferometer would be at the level of cities

 

[grokme]

Okay, I wasn't really thinking the distances would be helped. I was thinking of any obstructions if, say we were able to move out of the Oort cloud or whatever other materials might encumber the view. Please enlighten.

There are no obstructions worth the kind of effort it would take to move to the edge of the solar system.

Edited to add: Here is a link that is an excellent source for extrasolar planets and should answer all of your questions.

Thanks for that link. I'll check it out.

 

[grokme]

The required technology is just concepts at the moment, but it is physically possible to get a crude image.
We need an array of large space telescopes working as a giant nulling interferometer (a super Terrestrial Planet Finder)
But we don't know how to build this yet!

More informative would be spectra and spectropolarimetry. With these you you can tell a lot about the atmosphere (temperature clouds, pressure, dust and their height profiles), surface (desert, water, jungle), and signs of life (ozone, methane, plants, hydrocarbons/pollution from "cars") .... all can be mapped without an image as planet rotates.

Artificial radio emission would be nice
Mapping with a space based radio interferometer would be at the level of cities

Thanks for the post. This is a pretty exciting time to be alive. I kind of feel like we're the Martians peeking in on other civilizations as I sit here watching War of the Worlds on TNT

 

[grokme]

Origin,

Thanks for that link. Some interesting stuff over there. The finding that lithium is less abundant in stars that have worlds around them is very insightful. So, the planets somehow affect the sun in some way where the lithium gets used up.

Also, it occurred to me while reading about the planet search that we are probably more likely to find human like creaturs than other types first. We are searching for planets that have qualities like our own. So, I think we will find creatures like ourselves. Given our propensity for war, I don't know if it's a good thing.

 

[nimbus]

Probably doesn't matter since the nearest aliens to start a war against would be years if not decades away. And if they're FTL-capable, they're probably also more capable in war and would cool humans' war intentions.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Please let's stick to the imaging issue, and leave the alien discussion for SETI or The Unexplained...

Mod MW

 

[grokme]

Please let's stick to the imaging issue, and leave the alien discussion for SETI or The Unexplained...

Mod MW

Well I was discussing the search for life in light of the imaging issue and the likelyhood of what type of life we would find, but yes I agree. It was an offhand comment, not meant for massive expansion.

 

[nimbus]

Best I can add at this point is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Worlds_Mission
It probably wouldn't allow direct imaging, but would be significant help in getting more info on the planets with the star shaded.
edit - Or it might allow some imaging: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/20 ... world.html

 

[grokme]

Best I can add at this point is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Worlds_Mission
It probably wouldn't allow direct imaging, but would be significant help in getting more info on the planets with the star shaded.
edit - Or it might allow some imaging: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/20 ... world.html

I didn't think planets gave off enough light to just try to observe the planet directly.

 

[grokme]

One thing that confused me in reading some of the materials is the idea that we have to be on the ecliptic of the observed star in order to see the planet cross. It seems to me that the odds of us being on the ecliptic of many of these stars would be a rare occurence. So, are we going to miss a bunch of them because we aren't on the ecliptic? What percentage? Or is that unknown?

 

[MeteorWayne]

grok, that is correct. Only a small percentage of the planetary systems will be closely enough aligned for a planet to cross the star. Off the top of my head, I believe the number is estimated to be ~ 3 percent, but I could be off. I believe that is discussed on the Kepler mission homepage, there's a link in the Kepler Mission thread in M&L. So we will indeed miss most planetary systems. But by Kepler sampling over 100,000 stars, there should be sufficient statistics to estimate how many systems we have missed, and therfore the number of systems with planets (with orbits of less than a year)

Wayne

 

[grokme]

Well it should be exciting seeing what they find in the coming decades.