After doing a fair amount of research, scientists have come to what may seem like a redundant conclusion: Life may exist on Earth.
Of course, you’re probably thinking, “Well, that’s right.” Actually, it might be more accurate to call it life. to do There is on Earth – not only that can. But here’s the thing. The team’s conclusion is not the focus of the study. This is just a means to an end. The plot of this story lies exactly like this: From where These scientists reached their conclusion.
People are fascinated by the possibility of discovering life on planets outside the solar system (otherwise known as exoplanets). So, to look at things from a different perspective, this team of researchers considered what life and habitability on Earth would look like if an alien viewed our world as an exoplanet. How can they spy on us from afar? What could show them that our planet is being invaded?
These questions go far beyond philosophical considerations. The answers also have a practical use. They will be used to confirm an upcoming space mission called the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets, or “LIFE” mission, which will hunt for habitable exoplanets. The mission will consist of five spacecraft building a single mid-infrared interferometer. They will be located relatively close to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in an orbit around the sun known as Lagrange Point 2, or L2.
The team from ETH Zurich returned the technology that will support LIFE to Earth, confirming that the mission will indeed be capable of finding life on distant worlds when it launches in late 2026 or early 2027. If we can’t verify life on Earth, how can we verify life beyond?
Relating to: Possibly habitable Trappist-1 exoplanet caught destroying its own atmosphere
LIFE’s primary target will be rocky or terrestrial planets similar to Earth in size and temperature. It is being built to collect thermal emissions from these worlds and use their light spectrum to understand what elements and chemicals are present in their atmospheres.
This is possible because elements and compounds absorb and emit light at characteristic wavelengths. This means that light passing through the atmosphere of a planet, perhaps a star, or in the form of thermal radiation, will carry spectral fingerprints of these chemicals. This would also be true of molecules called “biomarkers,” such as methane, which are often produced by the biological processes of living things.
“Our goal is to detect chemical compounds in the light spectrum that indicate life on exoplanets,” Sascha Quanz, leader of the LIFE initiative, said in a statement. said.
remote earth
Rather than testing LIFE’s capabilities using the simulated light spectrum associated with an exoplanet, the team behind this research decided to validate the mission using the only planet where life has been discovered. This is our planet, Earth.
The team took data from NASA’s Aqua Earth observation satellite and used it to create the mid-infrared emission spectrum that would be expected if Earth were viewed as a modest speck from a very long distance. At such a distance, the beautiful mountains and blue seas of our planet would be indistinguishable from each other.
The team then averaged the spectra and evaluated how the result would be affected by seasonal fluctuations and our planet’s geometry. The researchers described three possible views, two from Earth’s poles and one from the equator. They also focused on data collected between January and July of 2017 to calculate seasonal variations.
The team concluded that if LIFE or a similar instrument observed Earth from as far as 30 light-years away, it would successfully determine that our planet is a warm, habitable world. The crew also determined that atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and water, all of which are important to or created by life, can be seen in our planet’s spectrum.
Therefore, remote observation of Earth through a LIFE-like telescope will reveal the conditions necessary for our planet to support liquid water on its surface.
Related Stories:
— Study shows exoplanets in the Trappist-1 system are more likely to be habitable than scientists once thought
— TRAPPIST-1 solar system not bombarded by space rocks like early Earth, study finds
— James Webb Space Telescope could help find habitable alien worlds
The team found that the same results were obtained regardless of geometry; This is positive news because scientists will not know the geometry of the exoplanets observed by LIFE. But less positively, they also found that seasonal changes would not be observed in detail by LIFE.
“Even if atmospheric seasonality cannot be easily observed, our study shows that next-generation space missions can assess whether nearby temperate terrestrial exoplanets are habitable or even habitable,” Quanz said.
The team’s research was published Monday, February 26, in The Astrophysical Journal.