The future of spectroscopic life detection on exoplanets
The discovery and characterization of exoplanets have the potential to offer the world one of the most impactful findings ever in the history of astronomy—the identification of life beyond Earth. Life can be inferred by the presence of atmospheric biosignature gases—gases produced by life that can a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95769 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6892-6948 |
| _version_ | 1826206315395940352 |
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| author | Seager, Sara |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Seager, Sara |
| author_sort | Seager, Sara |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The discovery and characterization of exoplanets have the potential to offer the world one of the most impactful findings ever in the history of astronomy—the identification of life beyond Earth. Life can be inferred by the presence of atmospheric biosignature gases—gases produced by life that can accumulate to detectable levels in an exoplanet atmosphere. Detection will be made by remote sensing by sophisticated space telescopes. The conviction that biosignature gases will actually be detected in the future is moderated by lessons learned from the dozens of exoplanet atmospheres studied in last decade, namely the difficulty in robustly identifying molecules, the possible interference of clouds, and the permanent limitations from a spectrum of spatially unresolved and globally mixed gases without direct surface observations. The vision for the path to assess the presence of life beyond Earth is being established. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:27:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/95769 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:27:32Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/957692022-09-28T14:22:22Z The future of spectroscopic life detection on exoplanets Seager, Sara Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Seager, Sara The discovery and characterization of exoplanets have the potential to offer the world one of the most impactful findings ever in the history of astronomy—the identification of life beyond Earth. Life can be inferred by the presence of atmospheric biosignature gases—gases produced by life that can accumulate to detectable levels in an exoplanet atmosphere. Detection will be made by remote sensing by sophisticated space telescopes. The conviction that biosignature gases will actually be detected in the future is moderated by lessons learned from the dozens of exoplanet atmospheres studied in last decade, namely the difficulty in robustly identifying molecules, the possible interference of clouds, and the permanent limitations from a spectrum of spatially unresolved and globally mixed gases without direct surface observations. The vision for the path to assess the presence of life beyond Earth is being established. 2015-03-03T19:49:56Z 2015-03-03T19:49:56Z 2014-08 2013-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0027-8424 1091-6490 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95769 Seager, Sara “The Future of Spectroscopic Life Detection on Exoplanets.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 35 (August 4, 2014): 12634–12640. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6892-6948 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1304213111 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) |
| spellingShingle | Seager, Sara The future of spectroscopic life detection on exoplanets |
| title | The future of spectroscopic life detection on exoplanets |
| title_full | The future of spectroscopic life detection on exoplanets |
| title_fullStr | The future of spectroscopic life detection on exoplanets |
| title_full_unstemmed | The future of spectroscopic life detection on exoplanets |
| title_short | The future of spectroscopic life detection on exoplanets |
| title_sort | future of spectroscopic life detection on exoplanets |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95769 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6892-6948 |
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