Comments on: Is there life in the Alpha Centauri system? /news/2015/08/06/is-there-life-in-the-alpha-centauri-system/ News from the University of Hawaii Tue, 10 Aug 2021 01:10:47 +0000 hourly 1 By: Svetlana Berdyugina /news/2015/08/06/is-there-life-in-the-alpha-centauri-system/#comment-370677 Fri, 07 Aug 2015 21:15:06 +0000 http://www.hawaii.edu/news/?p=37281#comment-370677 In the case of Alpha Cen we will see only part of the planet illuminated by the star (because of its orbit orientation). This is the most favorable case when we can see the largest polarization. In other planetary systems, the largest polarization is expected when about a half of the planet is illuminated.

We talk about linear polarization here because it is almost a million time larger than circular polarization from chiral life molecules in plants or bacteria.

The sunlight does not have to be polarized.

Thank you for your interest!

]]> By: Mr. Raymond Kenneth Petry /news/2015/08/06/is-there-life-in-the-alpha-centauri-system/#comment-369480 Fri, 07 Aug 2015 00:03:01 +0000 http://www.hawaii.edu/news/?p=37281#comment-369480 How does polarization not-average-out across planets so far away? Do you mean photon circular-polarization vs. linear-polarization? Or do you mean ‘if’ the sunlight is polarized? Or, is it already?

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