Earth’s Reflection From Moon Helps Search For Life Outside Our Solar System

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An international team of astronomers has found evidence of life in the Universe – right here on Earth – after pointing one of the world’s largest telescope at the Moon. While the observation might seem trivial, it has helped perfect a technique that could lead to future discoveries of life outside our solar system.

The researchers used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) to look at Earthshine reflected from the moon.

“We used a trick called earthshine observation to look at the Earth as if it were an exoplanet,” said Michael Sterzik (ESO), lead author of the paper about the work published March 1 in the journal Nature.

“The Sun shines on the Earth and this light is reflected back to the surface of the Moon. The lunar surface acts as a giant mirror and reflects the Earth’s light back to us —

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