Ultra-precise detectors will help find life in the universe from space water

Russian scientists have created ultra-precise detectors for the Millimetron space observatory (Spektr-M), a 10-meter telescope that will be placed at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth. With their help, experts will study clusters of water in the Universe.

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"Water is the key to understanding many processes in space. Studying water particles will help us understand how they spread between different objects in the Universe and how they got to Earth," explained Elena Zhukova, one of the developers of the detectors, deputy head of the laboratory of terahertz spectroscopy at MIPT.

In particular, she said, water in the form of ice or vapor particles can condense in clouds of gas and dust in which stars are formed, or in protoplanetary disks. It can also be found as part of asteroids, comets, and in the atmospheres of planets. And, since Earth's life forms are water-based, tracking its concentrations in the universe suggests where it makes sense to look for living things.

As the scientists explained, water in space will be studied using a high-resolution spectrometer. This is one of the main science facilities aboard the Millimetron. To accurately determine the spectral lines of H2O, the instrument allocates seven sub-bands of the terahertz frequency range.

"To register signals up to 1.3 THz, we used detectors that are a 'puff' of superconductors and an insulator between them. Electrons pass through the insulating barrier due to the quantum tunnel effect (in which microobjects exhibit at once the properties of particles and waves)", - said the head of the laboratory of terahertz devices and technologies of the ASC FIAN Andrei Khudchenko.

Also with the help of the observatory scientists will study the active nuclei of galaxies, black holes, pulsars and other exotic objects. Such as "mole holes" (hypothetical "tunnels" in space-time) or "white holes" (supposed physical objects in space into which nothing can get, the opposite of black holes), he added.

Read more in an exclusive Izvestia piece:

Extraterrestrial attraction: space observatory will search for life in the universe