Astronomers look for traces of water, methane, oxygen, ozone, and other so-called biomarkers to find life on other planets. But to interpret them correctly, astronomers must look to the planet’s star.
A NASA sounding rocket, designed and built at LASP by the CUSP rocket team, will observe a nearby star to learn how starlight affects the atmospheres of exoplanets – key information in the hunt for life outside our solar system.