THE German-Spanish Astronomical Centre in Calar Alto is help look for liquid water and life signs on planets. It is collaborating with the American Kepler mission, according to communications at the XXVIII General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Beijing.
Valentin Martinez Pillet, Project Coordinator of the Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands, says the mission will be launched by around 2030. The infra-red spectrograph available at Calar Alto can help the Kepler mission in its search for organic molecules in outer space.
Basis of this collaboration is the recent discovery by Kepler of a two-sun multi-planet system, as disclosed by scientists from the University of San Diego, which presents ‘habitable conditions’. This could involve the presence of water, which is the first condition for life.
