Could Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope detect alien life?

[Nergal]

 

If it does launch as currently scheduled in 2021, it will be 14 years late. When finally in position, though - orbiting the Sun 1.5 million km from Earth - Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope promises an astronomical revolution.

The US space agency boasts that it will literally "look back in time to see the very first galaxies that formed in the early Universe".

As if those claims were not bold enough, scientists have now surmised that the eventual successor to the world famous and beloved Hubble Space Telescope may - thanks to its 6.5m golden mirror and exquisitely sensitive cameras - have a another extraordinary talent.

The JWST, as it is called, may be able to look for signs of alien life - detecting whether atmospheres of planets orbiting nearby stars are being modified by that life.

Despite this, the project to build it narrowly survived cancellation by the US Government in 2011. That was in no small part down to its (perhaps appropriately) astronomical cost - an estimated $10bn rather than its originally planned $1bn.

Back on Earth, however, astronomers - including the University of Washington team who proposed "life-detection" observations using the telescope - are unerringly thrilled at the prospect of its launch.

How do you detect life on distant planets?