The Shining: Alien Worlds Observed in Galaxies Beyond Milky Way

The Shining: Alien Worlds Observed in Galaxies Beyond Milky Way: "With some 500 known exoplanet apparently all around us (galactically speaking), a global team of researchers have kicked it up a notch. Signals shining across millions of light years, from other galaxies, indicate the birth of solar systems - and we can see them.

The work is based on spectroscopy, the science of examining what wavelengths of light come in and extracting all kinds of information from it (far more than our eyes, which just say 'that's blue' and call it a day). Every material has a unique emission spectrum (very specific wavelengths they emit) and any intervening material absorbs it (according to the same spectroscopic signature). This technique allows us to 'see' even when the light source is too faint or far away to make out detail any other way."