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Finding new Earths with planetshine
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In the hunt for Earths throughout the galaxy, scientists are always looking for faster, more accurate ways to identify potential planets. New research coming out of Australia and Princeton may help speed up the process, spotting planets with large amounts of water quickly using the phenomenon on planetshine.
Planetshine occurs when the reflection off a planet lights up the dark side of its moon(s). This is best seen on Earth when the moon is a slim crescent. Though the brightest part of the crescent is lit by reflection of the sun, we can see the entirety of the moon from Earth's own reflection, such as in the picture above.
Not unexpectedly, it turns out that planetshine is much brighter when the light is being reflected by an ocean. Sally Langford, a PhD student at the University of Melbourne in Australia, studied the changes in Earthshine as the world rotated. From their vantage point of Mount Macedon in Victoria, Australia, researchers watched the moon rise and set, focusing especially at the time when it was in crescent. Under these conditions, the earthshine started over the Indian Ocean and then rotated over Africa as night progressed.
"When we observe earthshine from the Moon in the early evening we see the bright reflection from the Indian Ocean, then as the Earth rotates the continent of Africa blocks this reflection, and the Moon becomes darker,” Ms Langford said. [Melbourne]
By compiling the data from the three-year study, scientists will be able to identify new planets based on their level of shine. This will help, for many planets are too small or too far from the spacecraft to get a detailed picture of their surface. Obviously this won't rely on studying the backsides of moons (as those would also be unavailable to a passing space probe), but rather on the shifting levels of brightness of the planet. While it won't be an ultimate answer to whether a planet will be able to support life, studying planetshine will help narrow the field, allowing scientists to focus on planets whose shine show clear evidence of large bodies of water broken up by landmasses, just like on Earth.
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