Massive Binoculars 'Clear the Dust' in Search for New Earths

Experts are pointing one massive set of binoculars at the night sky, hoping to "clear the dust" from our search for habitable worlds just like Earth.

Space dust is a natural byproduct of the planet-formation process, so looking for it can lead us to new and promising worlds. However, too much of it can also block our view of planets and obscure data. It could even present itself like a planet if it influences spectroscopic observations - stellar clues for identifying habitable worlds, or "Goldilocks" planets that are too far away to be seen with a telescope directly.

Those spectroscopic observations, taken by the Kepler telescope, have so far identified 4,000 candidate exoplanets for analysis. As of the start of 2015, 1,000 of those planets have been verified by astronomers and other telescopic data, meaning that they are likely actual planets and not just accidental blips on the radar.

"Kepler told us how common Earth-like planets are," said Phil Hinz, the principal investigator of the NASA-funded Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer, or LBTI.

"Now we want to find out just how dusty and obscured planetary environments are, and how difficult the planets will be to image," he explained in a statement.

Scientists hope to take new and detailed snapshots of promising Goldilocks worlds, looking for scattered light data that could reveal clues about their atmospheric makeup - a huge factor in habitability. Unfortunately, dust - reflecting light from a host star - can outshine the light of a planet, complicating things. (Scroll to read on...)

"Imagine trying to view a firefly buzzing around a lighthouse in Canada from Los Angeles," said Denis Defrère of the University of Arizona, who recently led a test study of the LBTI's dust-checking abilities.

"Now imagine that fog is in the way," he added. "The fog is like our stardust. We want to eliminate the stars with fog from our list of targets to study in the future."

As of this month, the LBTI has completed this first study of dust in the "habitable zone" around a star - the region where planets could lie without having their water evaporate or completely freeze. The results were recently published in the Astrophysical Journal.

According to the test, the telescope works as intended, revealing that this first candidate observed is not as promising as astronomers thought - namely that a ton of dust is obscuring this star's habitable zone.

"This star is a not a good candidate for direct imaging of planets, but it demonstrates what LBTI is good for," Hinz added. "We are figuring out the architecture of planetary systems in a way that has not been done before."

LBTI will begin its official mission this spring, and will operate for at least the next three years.

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