He added: «It would open an enormous new window on the Universe, allowing you to detect the presence of oxygen if there is any on Earth -
like planets around nearby stars.
The GMT aims to discover Earth -
like planets around nearby stars and the tiny distortions that black holes cause in the light from distant stars and galaxies.
They hope these bigger projects might be able to directly image Earth -
like planets around nearby stars in search of signs of life.
Not exact matches
While other techniques are best at finding
planets around nearby sun -
like stars, gravitational microlensing can study any
star up to 20,000 light years away.
«While the current state of the technique can not detect Earths
around stars like the Sun, with Keck Observatory it should soon be possible to study the atmospheres of the so - called «super-Earth»
planets being discovered
around nearby low mass
stars, many of which do not transit,» Blake said.
«The
planets in the habitable zone
around nearby dwarf
stars,
like Proxima Centauri or TRAPPIST - 1, are exposed to strong stellar winds that could strip their atmospheres,» Loeb said.