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The Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) will study all aspects of planets: from their formation and development in disks of dust and gas around newly forming stars to the presence and features of those planets orbiting the nearest stars; from the numbers at various sizes, and places to their suitability as an abode for life. By combining the high sensitivity of space telescopes with the sharply detailed pictures from an interferometer, TPF will be able to reduce the glare of parent stars by a factor of more than one hundred-thousand to see planetary systems as far away as 50 light years. In addition to measuring the size, temperature, and placing of planets as small as the Earth in the habitable zones of distant solar systems, TPF's spectroscopy will allow atmospheric chemists and biologists to use the relative amounts of gasses like carbon dioxide, water vapor, ozone and methane to find whether a planet someday could or even now does support life.
Description
The Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) will study all aspects of planets: from their formation and development in disks of dust and gas around newly forming stars to the presence and features of those planets orbiting the nearest stars; from the numbers at various sizes, and places to their suitability as an abode for life. By combining the high sensitivity of space telescopes with the sharply detailed pictures from an interferometer, TPF will be able to reduce the glare of parent stars by a factor of more than one hundred-thousand to see planetary systems as far away as 50 light years. In addition to measuring the size, temperature, and placing of planets as small as the Earth in the habitable zones of distant solar systems, TPF's spectroscopy will allow atmospheric chemists and biologists to use the relative amounts of gasses like carbon dioxide, water vapor, ozone and methane to find whether a planet someday could or even now does support life.
Description
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