James Roger Prior Angel

I am interested in whether there are Earth-like planets of other stars, and if these have life. While this has been a topic of speculation for thousands of years, only now is the technology becoming available to undertake astronomical observations with enough sensitivity. Neville Woolf and I realized that cold telescopes in space could potentially resolve the thermal emission of terrestrial planets, and that greenhouse gases could be detected in relatively crude spectra. We would hope to detect in another planet the strong water and ozone features which in Earth''s spectrum are indicators of oceans and life. The kind of telescope needed to make these observations combines the light from several large, lightweight mirrors in space, destructively interfering the stellar emission to reveal the much fainter planet. First proposed by Ron Bracewell, we have now demonstrated this technique with ground telescopes, and will soon use it to study Jupitor-like exoplanets with the Large Binocular Telescope. Through this work, which requires exquisitely accurate wavefront control, and experiments with lightweight mirrors and smaller space interferometers, the technology needed for NASA''s planned mission should be proven in the next decade.