Finding and characterizing habitable planets presents a unique astronomical challenge. Following the rather simplified definition of the radiation-determined ‘habitable zone’ provides a starting point for the search, which we can use to constrain the likelihood of terrestrial planets in this promising range. The characterization is another challenge however, one that is likely not technically feasible for the next decade.
In this talk I will discuss my work on studying the detectability of Earth-like planets in our solar neighborhood. This includes simulations of the reflectively of the Earth and constraining the detectability of its atmospheric signatures from afar. The capabilities of current and future observatories will be shown in the context of this work.
