Watch the sun set from a particularly dark patch of Earth and you might find a triangle of what scientists call zodiacal light extending from where our star passed below the horizon.Zodiacal light in Earths skies is created when sunshine bounces off the dust that fills the solar system, the remains of pulverized asteroids and flurry left by passing comets.”If we can identify zodiacal light from a remote planet system, then this system most likely has elements like comets and asteroids, which cant be easily found straight in other methods,” lead author Jian Ge, an astronomer at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in China, said during a news conference held practically on Jan. 13 by the American Astronomical Society. Now, with only three prospects amongst 47 worlds, the scientists cant say that zodiacal light is a particularly common sight on possibly habitable worlds, but that may alter when astronomers can utilize more effective observations than those of NASAs WISE mission, Ge said.
See the sun set from a particularly dark spot of Earth and you may find a triangle of what researchers call zodiacal light extending from where our star passed below the horizon.Zodiacal light in Earths skies is created when sunshine bounces off the dust that fills the solar system, the remains of pulverized asteroids and flurry left by passing comets.”If we can detect zodiacal light from a remote planet system, then this system likely has parts like comets and asteroids, which cant be easily discovered directly in other methods,” lead author Jian Ge, an astronomer at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in China, said during a news conference held practically on Jan. 13 by the American Astronomical Society. Now, with just three prospects amongst 47 worlds, the researchers cant say that zodiacal light is a particularly typical sight on potentially habitable worlds, however that might change when astronomers can utilize more powerful observations than those of NASAs WISE objective, Ge stated.
