Resumen de The down of distant skies.
The article discusses astrophysics research investigating the atmospheres of planets outside of Earth's solar system in an attempt to find signs of extraterrestrial life. The discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star by San Francisco State University observer Geoffrey W. Marcy and his partner at the University of California, Berkeley, R. Paul Butler, is presented. Topics include the clues into what an exoplanet's atmosphere is made of by studying the change in stellar brightness that occurs when an exoplanet passes behind its star, methods for detecting an exoplanet's biosignature, and the use of advanced techniques, such as radial-velocity, to study atoms and molecules of exoplanetary atmospheres, such as HD 209458b's.
