New radio wave technology could detect foreign planets, interstellar melodies get

By Jesse Hicks posted Apr 24 2011 2: 02 AM each experienced Planet Hunter is you: search for extrasolar planets is the real challenge, where go hardened professionals to test their zeal. These delicate bodies stymie conventional methods like the see a planet passed to its parent star - da exoplanets have often decades-long lanes, which means that you have a lot of lonely nights search unsuccessfully the sky could spend. So scientists at the University of Leicester in England developed a new approach: looking for radio waves emitted when ultraviolet light by the atmosphere of the planet such as Jupiter and Saturn flares. The flares - northern lights - for ordinary telescopes, invisible can be detected by radio telescopes and the European low frequency array (LOFAR, shown above). The scientists hope it helps the planetary systems these methods discover up to 150 light years away, maybe even some, can maintain the life. And, of course, they keep one step ahead Richard Branson.
[Image: LOFAR / ASTRON]

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