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Longmore specializes in observing .

As a professor of astrophysics at Liverpool

John Moores University , Longmore has long

been used to keeping his gaze turned skyward .

But , in 2014 , a casual backyard conversation

The same thermal imaging technology used to detect the Virgo cluster of galaxies can be used to detect a camouflaged cluster of rhinos .

with Serge Wich — both Longmore ’ s next door neighbor and a professor of ecology at the same university — sparked a dramatic shift in perspective .

“ Serge is an expert on using drones to track animals , and he ’ d just started incorporating thermal cameras ,” Longmore says . “ But while these were great in theory , his team really just wasn ’ t used to using them . I just thought , well , us astronomers have been using thermal imaging for a long time , so maybe we can help you .”

In fact , astronomers have employed thermal imaging since the 1850s , when Scottish astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth first demonstrated the ability to register the long-wavelength infrared radiation emitted by the heat of the moon using a simple temperature sensor . But it wasn ’ t until a hundred years later , with the invention of highly sensitive detector arrays , that infrared astronomy came into its own .

While the shorter wavelength light visible to our eyes is absorbed by clouds of interstellar dust , infrared light is not . So , when these new infrared telescopes were pointed toward deep space , they revealed a brightly glowing universe of distant exoplanets , stars , and galaxies , where optical telescopes had shown only a dark , empty void .

The same thing can happen when you direct these telescopes toward — what appears to be — uninhabited undergrowth .

“ Animals have evolved over billions of years to camouflage themselves into their surroundings under the kind of light that we and other predators ordinarily see with ,” Longmore explains . “ But they tend to be much

PHOTOS ( TOP TO BOTTOM ) SHUTTERSTOCK ; COURTESY OF LJMU / KNOWSLEY SAFARI