Writing in SEED Lee Billings (@LeeBillings on Twitter) points out how we might directly image planets in other solar systems. Although more than 400 have been discovered in the only the past fifteen years through a variety of techniques - and Kepler promises to turn up Earth-size worlds in the next couple of years - direct imaging of other bodies that might support life hasn't yet happened. Technology that would filter out the starlight that hides the accompanying bodies we know are there is, however, available and could be used in the next decade. It brings up this question.
How would direct imaging of a terrestrial world in a water-friendly orbit around its star affect those of us on this world?
Wayne
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