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Celebrating 50 years of Astronomy in Hawaii Voted Best Natural Food Store 16 years! Quality Natural & Organic Foods Award Winnig Hot Bar & Salad Bar Grocery, Supplements & Body Care Deli & Bakery • Grab & Go Meals Sushi & Snacks • Beer & Wine Hilo www.islandnaturals.com (808) 935-5533 1221 Kilauea ave. Hilo shopping center Kailua-Kona (808) 326-1122 74-5487 kaiwi st. old industrial area Pahoa (808) 965-8322 Downtown “Let us put our 50+ years of experience to work for you.” Mary Begier RB-14405 808-348-5831 Where your real estate transaction is just as important to us as it is to you! Joy Dillon RS-64293 808-640-2544 Certified Residential Specialist Mary Begier Realty | RB-14405 | 101 Aupuni St. #315 | Hilo HI 96720 | 808-935-0737 of the planet will be recognizable from Earth,” she said. So far, scientists have used spectroscopy to confirm life on only one planet, and it’s one with which we’re quite familiar. In the early’90s, famed cosmologist Carl Sagan proposed the Galileo spacecraft turn its instruments toward Earth as it traveled to Jupiter to test whether such methods could be used to find signs of life. That was done successfully. ”In its December 1990 fly-by of Earth, the Galileo spacecraft found evidence of abundant gaseous oxygen, a widely distributed surface pigment with a sharp absorption edge in the red part of the visible spectrum, and atmospheric methane in extreme thermodynamic disequilibrium; together, these are strongly suggestive of life on Earth,” Sagan and his co-authors wrote in the journal Nature in 1993. “Moreover, the presence of narrow-band, pulsed, amplitude-modulated radio transmission seems uniquely attributable to intelligence.” Those measurements were taken within our own solar system. To do the same for planets millions of light-years away, and especially those in a habitable zone, will require bigger telescopes, Moutou said. Existing telescopes on Maunakea aren’t giving up on the hunt. Several, such as CFHT, Keck and Gemini, are planning new advanced instruments to find more exoplanets. While new space telescopes are being launched, Moutou said ground-based telescopes will continue to play an essential role. One of the limitations of space telescopes is their instruments can’t be replaced. “We can do that from the ground and it’s much more expensive to send satellites with these,” she said. “Ground-based telescopes are very much important as a synergy with space telescopes to measure and catalog the planetary systems we are about to discover.” With bigger and better telescopes and instruments on the way, it’s hard not to feel like astronomy is on the cusp of a major discovery. But asked how soon might another world with life be confirmed, Moutou hesitates. It could be within the few decades, she suggests. One thing is known, though. The impact of finding another world with plants or creatures, no matter their form, would be enormous. “There have been a lot of revolutions like that in recent history of humanity,” she said, citing the realization the Earth is not the center of the universe as an example. “Knowing Earth is just one earth of millions and billions of earths in the galactic neighborhood may change our view of ourselves. It may make us more humble. I think it will be a very positive impact.” Michaud agreed. “Are we alone? You can’t imagine humanity hasn’t asked that question from the very beginning looking up at the stars,” he said. “It’s kind of the ultimate question: What else is out there?” Sunday, December 24, 2017 25 EXOPLANETS From page 24 HOLLYN JOHNSON/Tribune-Herald Peter Michaud, Gemini Observatory public information manager, sits in the lobby at Gemini headquarters in Hilo. Hawaii Tribune-Herald


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