Alien Detection Tool

An instrument is being made at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA. Instruments that will be used in one of the largest and most powerful telescope ever made scientists in the Canary Islands, Spain.

This tool will be used by astronomers to help complete the data obtained in the Kepler spacecraft to find and characterize planets are thought to potentially contain alien life.

Spectograph instrument called HARPS-North (Hight-Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) was designed to detect even small signal generated by the planet to orbit the Earth as small as close to its star.

"During this time, Kepler planets the size information based on the amount of light blocked when he crossed in front of its star," says David Latham, an astronomer at the Smithsonian.

Latham says, now it needs a tool to measure the mass of the planet, so researchers can find out the density of the planet in question. "This tool allows us to distinguish between rocky planets and planetary water from objects that are dominated by an atmosphere full of hydrogen and helium," he said.

How it works spectograph is by separating the light from a star into component wavelengths, or colors, just like the workings of a prism. Chemical elements will then be used to absorb light with a certain color, and leaving black lines in the spectrum of stars.

These lines slowly changed positions because of the gravitational influence of planets that orbit their stars and allow researchers to take measurements.

"HARPS-N will examine the most interesting objects are discovered by Kepler," said Dimitar Sasselov, director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative, a research center that studies of planet formation and evolution of early detection and source of life.

Sasselov said, HARPS-N will cooperate with the Kepler and is scheduled to begin to take measurements in April 2012.