Small, rocky, Earth-like exoplanets is what we're interested in, but they're hard to study. Polarimetry could be a key.
space telescope, we’ll enter an age of directly-imaged exoplanets. Scientists need to prepare for all those observations and data so they’ll be prepared to interpret them.
Polarized Signatures of a Habitable World: Comparing Models of an Exoplanet Earth with Visible and Near-infrared Earthshine Spectra Those methods work for large, gaseous planets. But they’re difficult for rocky planets, and rocky planets are what we’re interested in. Large gaseous planets have puffy atmospheres that make spectroscopic study easier. And they emit or reflect more light due to their size, giving them a higher flux in direct imaging. But rocky planets have much smaller atmospheres that are more challenging to study spectroscopically.
This artist’s impression shows the super-Earth LHS 1140b, which orbits a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth and might be the new holder of the title “best place to look for signs of life beyond the Solar System”. This world is a little larger and much more massive than the Earth and has likely retained most of its atmosphere. Polarimetry could play a role in characterizing its surface. Image Credit: ESO/M.
The JWST will also struggle with what astronomers call degeneracies. “… a number of degeneracies will still exist in the characterizations of habitable worlds by JWST, such as differentiating between the optical thicknesses and particle-size distributions of clouds,” they write.
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