Webb Space Telescope Might Be Able To Detect Other Civilizations by Their Air

This artist’s impression shows a rocky exoplanet with a wispy, cloudy atmosphere orbiting a red dwarf star. Credit: L. Hustak and J. Olmsted (STScI)

The launched last December, has been slowly powering up its instruments and unfurling its sunshield, and is now in the process of aligning its mirrors in preparation for operation. Within a few months, the most powerful space telescope ever built is going to set its sights on the stars. Astronomers are hoping that what JWST sees will change the way we understand our universe, just as the red edge‘. A single-pixel photo of a distant planet just might contain enough information to tell us if biological life is there, based on the information stored in the wavelengths of light that reach the telescope lens.

An artist’s impression of the James Webb Space Telescope, fully deployed. The James Webb Space Telescope is expected to be fully operational this summer. Credit: NASA

But what about…

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