Life on planets outside of our solar system can now be detected more accurately than ever before with the help of a powerful new model developed by researchers from UCL and the University of New South Wales, Press Trust of India reported.
The new model, developed by researchers from the University College London, focuses on methane, the simplest organic molecule, widely acknowledged to be a sign of potential life.
Researchers have developed a new spectrum for "hot" methane which can be used to detect the molecule at temperatures above that of the Earth, up to 1220 degrees Celsius, which was not possible before.
To find out what remote planets orbiting other stars are made of, astronomers analyze the way in which their atmosphere absorbs starlight of different colors and compare it to a model, or "spectrum," to identify different molecules, according to PTI.
Nearly 10 billion spectroscopic lines, each with a distinct color at which methane can absorb light, were calculated by researches through using some of the UK's most advanced supercomputers, provided by the Distributed Research utilizing Advanced Computing (DiRAC) project and run by the University of Cambridge.
"The new list of lines is 2,000 times bigger than any previous study, which means it can give more accurate information across a broader range of temperatures than was previously possible," PTI reported.
The new model has been tested and verified by successfully reproducing in detail the way in which the methane in failed stars, called brown dwarfs, absorbs light.
"Current models of methane are incomplete, leading to a severe underestimation of methane levels on planets," said Professor Jonathan Tennyson, from UCL Department of Physics and Astronomy, and co-author of the study.
"We anticipate our new model will have a big impact on the future study of planets and 'cool' stars external to our solar system, potentially helping scientists identify signs of extraterrestrial life," Tennyson said.
The study was published in the journal PNAS.