Moon portraits may hold signs of life

摘要

Moons, rather than planets, could star in the first images of habitable worlds outside our solar system. Once taken, such images would offer unprecedented clues to the moons' ability to support life by providing the chemical signatures carried in their light. "If we can direct-image them, we can take their spectra, which means we can determine what sort of molecules are in their atmosphere," says Mary Anne Peters of Princeton University.