You can determine this, given enough
data about the exoplanet, based on how much energy it receives from its parent star and how far away it is in orbit, and then by comparing that with what life needs to flourish.
Not exact matches
Researchers previously automated Kepler
data analysis by hard - coding programs with rules
about how to detect bona fide
exoplanet signals, Coughlin explains.
During one team meeting, Bean and his colleagues listed all the properties of a potentially habitable
exoplanet that they need to measure and how they would go
about obtaining the
data.
A team of British and American astronomers used
data from several telescopes on the ground and in space — among them the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope — to study the atmosphere of the hot, bloated, Saturn - mass
exoplanet WASP - 39b,
about 700 light - years from Earth.
The
data collected by Spitzer and other telescopes reveal the
exoplanets» sizes and distances to their stars, while theoretical models predict additional information
about the planets» atmospheres and surfaces.
And as a nifty bonus, the telescope will be able to spot distant
exoplanets in the heart of the Milky Way, and its second instrument will be able to gather
data about their atmospheres, which can tell scientists whether a planet is more like Neptune or Jupiter, for instance.
What life - hunting space scientists need is more
data about candidate
exoplanets.
The result is the Habitable
Exoplanets Catalog, which acts as a central storage venue for
data about these planets.
Once enough players have reached a consensus
about the possibility of an
exoplanet, the
data will be sent to scientists at the University of Geneva.