Could We Detect Molecular Oxygen in the Atmosphere of a Transiting Extra-Solar Earth-Like Planet?

Details Could We Detect Molecular Oxygen in the Atmosphere of a Transiting Extra-Solar Earth-Like Planet? Could We Detect Molecular Oxygen in the Atmosphere of a Transiting Extra-Solar Earth-Like Planet?

2001-01-22

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0101375v2

Publ. Astron. Soc. Austr., 2001, 18, 252-258

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

14 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Publ. Astron. Soc. Austr

Scientific paper

10.1071/AS01037

Although the extra-solar planets discovered so far are of the giant, gaseous, type, the increased sensitivity of future surveys will result in the discovery of lower mass planets. The detection of O2 in the atmosphere of a rocky extra-solar planet would be a potential indicator of a life. In this paper we address the specific issue of whether we would be able to detect the O2 A-band absorption feature in the atmosphere of a planet similar to the Earth, if it were in orbit around a nearby star. Our method is empirical, in that we use observations of the Earth's O2 A-band, with a simple geometric modification for a transiting extra-solar planet, allowing for limb-darkening of the host star. We simulate the spectrum of the host star with the superposed O2 A-band absorption of the transiting planet, assuming a spectral resolution of 7 km/s (typical of current echelle spectrographs), for a range of spectral signal-to-noise ratios. The main result is that we could reliably detect the O2 A-band of the transiting planet for host stars with radii 0.3 solar or less. However, using existing instrumentation and 8m telescopes, this requires target M stars with m(V) of approximately 10 or brighter for integration times of about 10 hours or less. The number of such stars over the sky is small. Larger aperture telescopes and/or improved instrumentation efficiency would enable surveys of M stars down to m(V) = 13 and greatly improve the chances of discovering life elsewhere.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Could We Detect Molecular Oxygen in the Atmosphere of a Transiting Extra-Solar Earth-Like Planet? does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Could We Detect Molecular Oxygen in the Atmosphere of a Transiting Extra-Solar Earth-Like Planet?, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Could We Detect Molecular Oxygen in the Atmosphere of a Transiting Extra-Solar Earth-Like Planet? will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-11366