Spectroscopic indicators of life on other planets

Details Spectroscopic indicators of life on other planets Spectroscopic indicators of life on other planets

Oct 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008aps..osf.a1001k&link_type=abstract

American Physical Society, 2008 Joint Meeting of the APS Ohio-Region Section, the AAPT Southern Ohio Section, and the ACS Dayton

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Astronomers have now identified over 300 extrasolar planets orbiting nearby stars. Most of these planets have been found by using ground-based instruments to measure Doppler shifts in the spectrum of the parent star. For stars similar to our Sun, this method is unable to find planets as small as Earth. Within the next two (three?) decades, however, NASA hopes to launch space-based telescopes that will be able to search directly for extrasolar planets. NASA's planned Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) missions, will look for Earth-like planets around nearby stars and, if they exist, provide spectroscopic information on their atmospheres. TPF-C will be a coronagraph that operates in the visible/near-IR. A variant of this idea, called TPF-O, would replace the internal coronagraph with a free-flying occulting disk. TPF-I is envisioned as a free-flying interferometer operating in the thermal-IR. On a planet like modern Earth, TPF-C or TPF--O should be able to see absorption bands of O2, H2O, and possibly O3. TPF-I would be able to see CO2, H2O, and O3. Both O2 and O3 are considered to be good indicators of life for planets orbiting within the liquid water habitable zone of their parent star. Even better evidence for life would be the simultaneous observation of O2 (or O3) and a reduced gas such as CH4 or N2O. That may not be possible with a first-generation TPF instrument but should ultimately be possible in the more distant future.

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