Atmospheric data hints at improving our chances of finding extraterrestrial life.

When a planet passes in front of its parent star, part of the starlight passes through the planet's atmosphere and contains information about the constituents of the atmosphere, providing vital information about the planet itself. This is called a transmission spectrum and even though astronomers can't use exactly the same method to look at the Earth's atmosphere, they were able to gain a spectrum of our planet by observing light reflected from the Moon towards the Earth during a lunar eclipse. This is the first time the transmission spectrum of the Earth has been measured.

Great news...

Originally quoted from Freeman Dyson "I would say the strategy in looking for life in the universe [should be] to look for what's detectable, not what's probable."

[edit on 24-6-2009 by bloodline]

amazing what we can discover off of something so "small"
lol

Anything to find these ETs.
I would think Spielberg is the expert being briefed by the government
on his "ET" movie.
You are aware the government is involved with movies and science
knowledge distribution.
In fact Mr. Spielberg might have some knowledge of the search for
free energy.