An Earth-like planet is being thwarted by planetary 'photobombers'

Scientists are finding that light cases from other planets in the same star system inhibit their efforts to find habitable exoplanets. Scientists are looking for ways to overcome these “photobombers” that interfere with the ability of the most advanced space telescopes to search for habitable planets.

According to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, you might think Earth and Mars are the same objects if viewed from a distant vantage point. An exo-Earth could be hiding in what we mistakenly believe is a large exo-Venus, for example.'

A paper published this month in the Astrophysical Journal Letters models the effect of this 'photobombing' and suggests ways to overcome it.

According to NASA, astronomers use telescopes to determine whether distant worlds are capable of supporting life. Even so, the universe is crowded: about thirty stars with planets similar to the Sun are within a 30-light-year distance of Earth.

Considering the distances being discussed, light diffraction may result in a visual merger between two exoplanets. Consequently, the data can be difficult to analyze if two objects are cross-contaminated, as Space explains.

According to NASA, photobombing occurs when light from other planets contaminates observations of one planet. Observations of an object are influenced by the aperture and wavelength of the telescope. If a planet orbits a distant star, a PSF may resolve in a way to appear as though two planets or a planet and moon merge.

Scientists may not be able to see a habitable world if this happens because the cross-contamination may skew the data they gather. The 2020 Astrophysical Decadal Survey recommends a telescope that might help scientists observe Earth from 30 light years away. Saxena looked at this scenario.

“With such a telescope, we saw potential exo-Earths beyond 30 light-years blended with planets beyond the habitable zone, and for a range of wavelengths of interest,” Saxena says.

Several options are suggested to deal with the photobombing problem, such as developing new data processing methods, studying systems over time in the hope that planets that interfere will move enough to become visible over time, or even increasing a telescope's size to reduce the impact.

Scientists have not yet determined a solution, but at least they are aware of the problem and can take it into account in the future.