@oscarlithgow I don't think so. I think that has to be done in the infrared, which doesn't work so well from Earth. NASA has the space-based Spitzer, but its mirror is only 0.85m. ESA has their new Herschel Space Observatory, with a 3.5m mirror, which I think may be the best available today for this sort of thing. The next big thing for studying exoplanetary atmospheres would be the James Webb Space Telescope, a space-based 6.5m infrared telescope scheduled for launch in about 2015.
OMG that's large !!! Will it have the capacity to study the recently discovered exoplanets atmosphere chemistry ?
oscarlithgow 1 year ago
@oscarlithgow I don't think so. I think that has to be done in the infrared, which doesn't work so well from Earth. NASA has the space-based Spitzer, but its mirror is only 0.85m. ESA has their new Herschel Space Observatory, with a 3.5m mirror, which I think may be the best available today for this sort of thing. The next big thing for studying exoplanetary atmospheres would be the James Webb Space Telescope, a space-based 6.5m infrared telescope scheduled for launch in about 2015.
sbergman27 1 year ago