"Galileo Mission: Earth Life Discovery?"

The Galileo spacecraft, during its flybys of Earth in 1990 and 1992, captured images that have been used by astronomers to study our planet as a potential analog for exoplanets. Despite the limitations of the images, such as washed-out spectral data, researchers were able to detect an oxygen absorption line and infer the presence of continents and oceans on Earth. This study provides a valuable baseline for identifying potentially habitable exoplanets and offers insights into how life-bearing planets might appear from a distance.