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NASA's Next Great Observatory Could Spot Oceans on Distant Worlds by Their Glint
Key Takeaways
- More than 5,500 exoplanets are confirmed and dozens lie in habitable zones, yet no liquid ocean has ever been definitively detected beyond Earth.
- Eleanor Cornish and Tyler Robinson of the University of Arizona propose hunting for 'glint' — specular reflection of starlight off water — in a pre-print submitted to the Astrophysical Journal.
- Water reflects strongly at shallow angles during a planet's crescent phase, while rock, sand and soil scatter light evenly and cannot mimic the effect.
- The technique is proven: Cassini spotted glint off Titan's hydrocarbon lakes in 2009, and a team including Carl Sagan used a Galileo fly-by of Earth to detect ocean glint decades earlier.
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DT Editorial Team··via universetoday.com