113 research outputs found
The K Dwarf Advantage for Biosignatures on Directly Imaged Exoplanets
Oxygen and methane are considered to be the canonical biosignatures of modern Earth, and the simultaneous detection of these gases in a planetary atmosphere is an especially strong biosignature. However, these gases may be challenging to detect together in the planetary atmospheres because photochemical oxygen radicals destroy methane. Previous work has shown that the photochemical lifetime of methane in oxygenated atmospheres is longer around M dwarfs, but M dwarf planet habitability may be hindered by extreme stellar activity and evolution. Here, we use a 1D photochemical-climate model to show that K dwarf stars also offer a longer photochemical lifetime of methane in the presence of oxygen compared to G dwarfs. For example, we show that a planet orbiting a K6V star can support about an order of magnitude more methane in its atmosphere compared to an equivalent planet orbiting a G2V star. In the reflected-light spectra of worlds orbiting K dwarf stars, strong oxygen and methane features could be observed at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Because K dwarfs are dimmer than G dwarfs, they offer a better planet-star contrast ratio, enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) possible in a given observation. For instance, a 50 hr observation of a planet at 7 pc with a 15 m telescope yields S/N = 9.2 near 1 m for a planet orbiting a solar-type G2V star, and S/N = 20 for the same planet orbiting a K6V star. In particular, nearby mid-late K dwarfs such as 61 Cyg A/B, Epsilon Indi, Groombridge 1618, and HD 156026 may be excellent targets for future biosignature searches
Organic Haze as a Biosignature in Anoxic Earth-like Atmospheres
Early Earth may have hosted a biologically-mediated global organic haze
during the Archean eon (3.8-2.5 billion years ago). This haze would have
significantly impacted multiple aspects of our planet, including its potential
for habitability and its spectral appearance. Here, we model worlds with
Archean-like levels of carbon dioxide orbiting the ancient sun and an M4V dwarf
(GJ 876) and show that organic haze formation requires methane fluxes
consistent with estimated Earth-like biological production rates. On planets
with high fluxes of biogenic organic sulfur gases (CS2, OCS, CH3SH, and
CH3SCH3), photochemistry involving these gases can drive haze formation at
lower CH4/CO2 ratios than methane photochemistry alone. For a planet orbiting
the sun, at 30x the modern organic sulfur gas flux, haze forms at a CH4/CO2
ratio 20% lower than at 1x the modern organic sulfur flux. For a planet
orbiting the M4V star, the impact of organic sulfur gases is more pronounced:
at 1x the modern Earth organic sulfur flux, a substantial haze forms at CH4/CO2
~ 0.2, but at 30x the organic sulfur flux, the CH4/CO2 ratio needed to form
haze decreases by a full order of magnitude. Detection of haze at an
anomalously low CH4/CO2 ratio could suggest the influence of these biogenic
sulfur gases, and therefore imply biological activity on an exoplanet. When
these organic sulfur gases are not readily detectable in the spectrum of an
Earth-like exoplanet, the thick organic haze they can help produce creates a
very strong absorption feature at UV-blue wavelengths detectable in reflected
light at a spectral resolution as low as 10. In direct imaging, constraining
CH4 and CO2 concentrations will require higher spectral resolution, and R > 170
is needed to accurately resolve the structure of the CO2 feature at 1.57
{\mu}m, likely, the most accessible CO2 feature on an Archean-like exoplanet.Comment: accepted for publication in Astrobiolog
Astrobiology as a NASA Grand Challenge
"Are we alone" is a question whose ambition can only be met with a NASA-led global collaboration. In this white paper, we describe how this makes "The Search for Life Beyond Earth" a new Grand Challenge for NASA. As described in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the White House National Economic Council, Grand Challenges are "ambitious but achievable goals that harness science, technology, and innovation to solve important national or global problems and that have the potential to capture the public's imagination." NASA had identified an "Asteroid Grand Challenge" centered on the Asteroid Retrieval Mission, which was closed out in June, 2017. Here, we explain how NASA's next Grand Challenge could be focused on "The Search for Life Beyond Earth," with a flagship-scale mission in Astrophysics as its centerpiece
Robert Burns Woodward
This poster for the Natural Sciences Poster Session at Parkland College features chemist Robert Burns Woodward (1917-1979). Woodward was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1965 for his work on organic synthesis. His work on total synthesis includes cholesterol, chlorophyll, colchicine, erythromycin, reserpine, and vitamin B12
Is the Pale Blue Dot unique? Optimized photometric bands for identifying Earth-like exoplanets
The next generation of ground and space-based telescopes will image habitable
planets around nearby stars. A growing literature describes how to characterize
such planets with spectroscopy, but less consideration has been given to the
usefulness of planet colors. Here, we investigate whether potentially
Earth-like exoplanets could be identified using UV-visible-to-NIR wavelength
broadband photometry (350-1000 nm). Specifically, we calculate optimal
photometric bins for identifying an exo-Earth and distinguishing it from
uninhabitable planets including both Solar System objects and model exoplanets.
The color of some hypothetical exoplanets - particularly icy terrestrial worlds
with thick atmospheres - is similar to Earth's because of Rayleigh scattering
in the blue region of the spectrum. Nevertheless, subtle features in Earth's
reflectance spectrum appear to be unique. In particular, Earth's reflectance
spectrum has a 'U-shape' unlike all our hypothetical, uninhabitable planets.
This shape is partly biogenic because O2-rich, oxidizing air is transparent to
sunlight, allowing prominent Rayleigh scattering, while ozone absorbs visible
light, creating the bottom of the 'U'. Whether such uniqueness has practical
utility depends on observational noise. If observations are photon limited or
dominated by astrophysical sources (zodiacal light or imperfect starlight
suppression), then the use of broadband visible wavelength photometry to
identify Earth twins has little practical advantage over obtaining detailed
spectra. However, if observations are dominated by dark current then optimized
photometry could greatly assist preliminary characterization. We also calculate
the optimal photometric bins for identifying extrasolar Archean Earths, and
find that the Archean Earth is more difficult to unambiguously identify than a
modern Earth twin.Comment: 10 figures, 38 page
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