Planetary scientists have for the first time used light, bounced from Earth to the moon, to “see” the planet’s oceans, a trick they claim could be used to survey far heavenly bodies in space.

An international team has shown that the difference in reflection of light from the Earth’s land masses and oceans can be seen on the dark side of the moon, a phenomenon known as earthshine, the ‘Astrobiology’ journal reported.

According to the scientists, the brightness of the reflected earthshine varied as the Earth rotated, revealing the difference between the intense mirror-like reflections of the ocean compared to the dimmer land.

“In the future, astronomers hope to find planets like the Earth around other stars. However, these planets will be too small to allow an image to be made of their surface.

“We can use earthshine, together with our knowledge of the Earth’s surface to help interpret the physical make up of new planets,” Sally Langford of Melbourne University, who led the team, said.

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