The next step is to devise instruments that can take a closer look, perhaps for distant planetary atmospheres that contain oxygen and methane, the telltale signature of life as we know it.
The walk is steeped in history, with the sights conjuring up the atmosphere of distant times.
Looking for signals of these chemicals in the atmospheres of distant planets is a key part of searching for life outside of Earth.
These strange 'failed' stars, described online in the journal Science, could help shed light on the atmospheres of distant exoplanets.
Silences, sudden bursts, increasingly dense but irregular rhythmic patterns and a distant, rolling thunder created an atmosphere of naturalistic fluidity.
Astronomers, exploiting the transparency of the atmosphere, study unthinkably distant constellations whose light has traveled for eons before reaching us.
Its influence can be profoundly felt in "Avatar," with its tentacled sea creatures — spiritually aware jellyfish — floating through the thickened atmosphere of the distant moon Pandora.
By looking at the particulars of how the colors change, that could even give clues of the atmosphere of those distant, unseen planets.
Evidence of life may yet be observed, perhaps by a tell-tale chemical disequilibrium in the atmosphere of a distant planet.
The tableaus are often striking, part museum, part cyberspace; but the futuristic fizz in the atmosphere seems awfully distant from the Victorian tale unfolding within it, and the overall inventiveness isn't entirely immune to dull ideas.
