Rethinking the Hunt for Life

Steve Desch can see the future of exoplanet research, and it’s not pretty. Imagine, he says, that astronomers use NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to scour the atmosphere of an Earth-mass world for signs of life. Then imagine that they chase hints of atmospheric oxygen for years — before realizing that those were false positives produced by geological activity instead of living things.

Desch, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University in Tempe, and other planet hunters met from 13-17 November in Laramie, Wyoming, to plot better ways to scout for life beyond Earth. Many are starting to argue that the standard definition of habitability — having liquid water on a planet’s surface — is not the factor that should guide exoplanet exploration. Instead, the scientists say, the field should focus on the chances of detecting alien life, should it exist.

“Planets can be habitable and not have life with any impact,” Desch told researchers at the meeting.

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Why do we find ourselves around a yellow star instead of a red star?

Why do we find ourselves around a yellow star instead of a red star?

Authors:

Haqq-Misra et al

Abstract:
M-dwarf stars are more abundant than G-dwarf stars, so our position as observers on a planet orbiting a G-dwarf raises questions about the suitability of other stellar types for supporting life. If we consider ourselves as typical, in the anthropic sense that our environment is probably a typical one for conscious observers, then we are led to the conclusion that planets orbiting in the habitable zone of G-dwarf stars should be the best place for conscious life to develop. But such a conclusion neglects the possibility that K-dwarfs or M-dwarfs could provide more numerous sites for life to develop, both now and in the future. In this paper we analyze this problem through Bayesian inference to demonstrate that our occurrence around a G-dwarf might be a slight statistical anomaly, but only the sort of chance event that we expect to occur regularly. Even if M-dwarfs provide more numerous habitable planets today and in the future, we still expect mid G- to early K-dwarfs stars to be the most likely place for observers like ourselves. This suggests that observers with similar cognitive capabilities as us are most likely to be found at the present time and place, rather than in the future or around much smaller stars.

Understanding Oxygen as a Biosignature in the Context of Its Environment

Exoplanet Biosignatures: Understanding Oxygen as a Biosignature in the Context of Its Environment

Authors:

Meadows et al

Abstract:
Here we review how environmental context can be used to interpret whether O2 is a biosignature in extrasolar planetary observations. This paper builds on the overview of current biosignature research discussed in Schwieterman et al. (2017), and provides an in-depth, interdisciplinary example of biosignature identification and observation that serves as a basis for the development of the general framework for biosignature assessment described in Catling et al., (2017). O2 is a potentially strong biosignature that was originally thought to be an unambiguous indicator for life at high-abundance. We describe the coevolution of life with the early Earth's environment, and how the interplay of sources and sinks in the planetary environment may have resulted in suppression of O2 release into the atmosphere for several billion years, a false negative for biologically generated O2. False positives may also be possible, with recent research showing potential mechanisms in exoplanet environments that may generate relatively high abundances of atmospheric O2 without a biosphere being present. These studies suggest that planetary characteristics that may enhance false negatives should be considered when selecting targets for biosignature searches. Similarly our ability to interpret O2 observed in an exoplanetary atmosphere is also crucially dependent on environmental context to rule out false positive mechanisms. We describe future photometric, spectroscopic and time-dependent observations of O2 and the planetary environment that could increase our confidence that any observed O2 is a biosignature, and help discriminate it from potential false positives. By observing and understanding O2 in its planetary context we can increase our confidence in the remote detection of life, and provide a model for biosignature development for other proposed biosignatures.

A Review of Potential Biosignature Detection Methods

Exoplanet Biosignatures: A Review of Remotely Detectable Signs of Life 

Authors: 

Schwieterman et al 

Abstract: 

In the coming years and decades, advanced space- and ground-based observatories will allow an unprecedented opportunity to probe the atmospheres and surfaces of potentially habitable exoplanets for signatures of life. Life on Earth, through its gaseous products and reflectance and scattering properties, has imprinted evidence of its presence upon the spectrum of our planet. Aided by the universality of the laws of physics and chemistry, we turn to Earths biosphere, both in the present and through geologic time, for informative analogies of what signatures to search for elsewhere. Here we have compiled an overview of our current understanding of potential exoplanet biosignatures including gaseous, surface, and temporal biosignatures. We additionally survey biogenic spectral features that are well-known in the specialist literature but have not yet been robustly vetted in the context of exoplanet biosignatures. We briefly review advances in assessing biosignature plausibility, including novel methods for determining chemical disequilibrium from remotely obtainable data and assessment tools for determining the minimum biomass required for a given atmospheric signature. We focus particularly on advances made since the seminal review by Des Marais et al. (2002). The purpose of this work is not to propose new biosignatures strategies, a goal left to companion papers in this series, but to review the current literature and provide a foundation for a path forward.

Is it Possible to Detect 3d Structure to Exoplanet Vegetation?

Detecting 3D vegetation structure with the Galileo space probe: Can a distant probe detect vegetation structure on Earth?

Authors:

Doughty et al

Abstract:

Sagan et al. (1993) used the Galileo space probe data and first principles to find evidence of life on Earth. Here we ask whether Sagan et al. (1993) could also have detected whether life on Earth had three-dimensional structure, based on the Galileo space probe data. We reanalyse the data from this probe to see if structured vegetation could have been detected in regions with abundant photosynthetic pigments through the anisotropy of reflected shortwave radiation. We compare changing brightness of the Amazon forest (a region where Sagan et al. (1993) noted a red edge in the reflectance spectrum, indicative of photosynthesis) as the planet rotates to a common model of reflectance anisotropy and found measured increase of surface reflectance of 0.019 versus a 0.007 predicted from only anisotropic effects. We hypothesize the difference was due to minor cloud contamination. However, the Galileo dataset had only a small change in phase angle (sun-satellite position) which reduced the observed anisotropy signal and we demonstrate that theoretically if the probe had a variable phase angle between 0-20, there would have been a much larger predicted change in surface reflectance of 0.06 and under such a scenario three-dimensional vegetation structure on Earth could possibly have been detected. These results suggest that anisotropic effects may be useful to help determine whether exoplanets have three-dimensional vegetation structure in the future but that further comparisons between empirical and theoretical results are first necessary.

Polarized Scattering and Biosignatures in Exoplanetary Atmospheres

Polarized Scattering and Biosignatures in Exoplanetary Atmospheres

Author:

Berdyugina

Abstract:

Polarized scattering in planetary atmospheres is computed in the context of exoplanets. The problem of polarized radiative transfer is solved for a general case of absorption and scattering, while Rayleigh and Mie polarized scattering are considered as most relevant examples. We show that (1) relative contributions of single and multiple scattering depend on the stellar irradiation and opacities in the planetary atmosphere; (2) cloud (particle) physical parameters can be deduced from the wavelength-dependent measurements of the continuum polarization and from a differential analysis of molecular band absorption; (3) polarized scattering in molecular bands increases the reliability of their detections in exoplanets; (4) photosynthetic life can be detected on other planets in visible polarized spectra with high sensitivity. These examples demonstrate the power of spectropolarimetry for exoplanetary research and for searching for life in the universe.

Biological fluorescence as a temporal biosignature for flare star worlds

Biofluorescent Worlds: Biological fluorescence as a temporal biosignature for flare star worlds

Authors:

O'Malley-James et al

Abstract:

Habitability for planets orbiting active stars has been questioned. Especially, planets in the Habitable Zone (HZ) of M-stars, like our closest star Proxima Centauri, experience temporal high-ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The high fraction of M-stars (75%) within the solar neighborhood, the high occurrence rate of rocky planets around M-stars, and the favorable contrast ratio between the star and a potentially habitable rocky planet, makes such planets interesting targets for upcoming observations. During M-star flares, the UV flux on a HZ planet can increase by up to two orders of magnitude. High UV radiation is harmful to life and can cause cell and DNA damage. Common UV protection methods (e.g. living underground, or underwater) would make a biosphere harder to detect. However, photoprotective biofluorescence, "up-shifting" UV to longer, safer wavelengths (a proposed UV protection mechanism for some corals), would increase the detectability of biota and even uncover normally hidden biospheres during a flare. Such biofluorescence could be observable as a "temporal biosignature" for planets around UV-active stars. We model temporal biofluorescence as a biosignature for an exoplanet biosphere exposed to such conditions, based on planets in M-star HZs. We use fluorescing coral proteins to model biofluorescence, comparing observable spectra, and colors, to vegetation and fluorescent minerals. Our planetary models assume a present-day Earth atmosphere and explore the effect of varying cloud coverage and land:ocean fractions. UV flare-induced biofluorescence could be remotely detectable, comparable in strength to vegetation on Earth. On planets in the HZ of M-stars, biofluorescence could be a temporary biosignature, distinguishable from fluorescing minerals and vegetation.

On the Habitability of Our Universe

On the Habitability of Our Universe

Author:

Loeb

Abstract:

Is life most likely to emerge at the present cosmic time near a star like the Sun? We consider the habitability of the Universe throughout cosmic history, and conservatively restrict our attention to the context of "life as we know it" and the standard cosmological model, LCDM. The habitable cosmic epoch started shortly after the first stars formed, about 30 Myr after the Big Bang, and will end about 10 Tyr from now, when all stars will die. We review the formation history of habitable planets and find that unless habitability around low mass stars is suppressed, life is most likely to exist near 0.1 solar mass stars ten trillion years from now. Spectroscopic searches for biosignatures in the atmospheres of transiting Earth-mass planets around low mass stars will determine whether present-day life is indeed premature or typical from a cosmic perspective.

The Genesis Project: Anthropogenic Panspermia

Developing Ecospheres on Transiently Habitable Planets: The Genesis Project

Authors:

Gros et al

Abstract:

It is often presumed, that life evolves relatively fast on planets with clement conditions, at least in its basic forms, and that extended periods of habitability are subsequently needed for the evolution of higher life forms. Many planets are however expected to be only transiently habitable. On a large set of otherwise suitable planets life will therefore just not have the time to develop on its own to a complexity level as it did arise on earth with the cambrian explosion. The equivalent of a cambrian explosion may however have the chance to unfold on transiently habitable planets if it would be possible to fast forward evolution by 3-4 billion years (with respect to terrestrial timescales). We argue here, that this is indeed possible when seeding the candidate planet with the microbial lifeforms, bacteria and unicellular eukaryotes alike, characterizing earth before the cambrian explosion. An interstellar mission of this kind, denoted the `Genesis project', could be carried out by a relatively low-cost robotic microcraft equipped with a on-board gene laboratory for the in situ synthesis of the microbes.

We review here our current understanding of the processes determining the timescales shaping the geo-evolution of an earth-like planet, the prospect of finding Genesis candidate planets and selected issues regarding the mission layout. Discussing the ethical aspects connected with a Genesis mission, which would be expressively not for human benefit, we will also touch the risk that a biosphere incompatibility may arise in the wake of an eventual manned exploration of a second earth.

Odds for an enlightened rather than barren future

Odds for an enlightened rather than barren future

Authors:

Haussler et al

Abstract:

We are at a stage in our evolution where we do not yet know if we will ever communicate with intelligent beings that have evolved on other planets, yet we are intelligent and curious enough to wonder about this. We find ourselves wondering about this at the very beginning of a long era in which stellar luminosity warms many planets, and by our best models, continues to provide equally good opportunities for intelligent life to evolve. By simple Bayesian reasoning, if, as we believe, intelligent life forms have the same propensity to evolve later on other planets as we had to evolve on ours, it follows that they will likely not pass through a similar wondering stage in their evolution. This suggests that the future holds some kind of interstellar communication that will serve to inform newly evolved intelligent life forms that they are not alone before they become curious.

Chemical Elements Abundance in the Universe and the Origin of Life

Chemical Elements Abundance in the Universe and the Origin of Life

Authors:

Valkovic et al

Abstract:

Element synthesis which started with p-p chain has resulted in several specific characteristics including lack of any stable isotope having atomic masses 5 or 8. The carbon to oxygen ratio is fixed early by the chain of coincidences. These, remarkably fine-tuned, conditions are responsible for our own existence and indeed the existence of any carbon based life in the Universe. Chemical evolution of galaxies reflects in the changes of chemical composition of stars, interstellar gas and dust. The evolution of chemical element abundances in a galaxy provides a clock for galactic aging. On the other hand, the living matter on the planet Earth needs only some elements for its existence. Compared with element requirements of living matter a hypothesis is put forward, by accepting the Anthropic Principle, which says: life as we know, (H-C-N-O) based, relying on the number of bulk and trace elements originated when two element abundance curves, living matter and galactic, coincided. This coincidence occurring at particular redshift could indicates the phase of the Universe when the life originated. It is proposed to look into redshift region z = 0.5 to 2.5 (approximately t = -5.2x10E9 to -11.3x10E9 years) where many galaxies have been observed and to use these data to study the evolution of metallicity with respect to the other properties of galaxies in order to determine the time when universal element abundance curve coincided with the element abundance curve of LUCA. The characteristic properties of the latter have been transmitted by the genetic code while the universe element abundance curve changed as the galaxies aged.

Temperature Constraints for Known Complex Life

From climate models to planetary habitability: temperature constraints for complex life

Authors:

Silva et al

Abstract:

In an effort to derive temperature based criteria of habitability for multicellular life, we investigated the thermal limits of terrestrial poikilotherms, i.e. organisms whose body temperature and the functioning of all vital processes is directly affected by the ambient temperature. Multicellular poikilotherms are the most common and evolutionarily ancient form of complex life on earth. The thermal limits for their active metabolism and reproduction are bracketed by the temperature interval 0C less than T less than 50C. The same interval applies to the photosynthetic production of oxygen, an essential ingredient of complex life, and for the generation of atmospheric biosignatures. Analysis of the main mechanisms responsible for the thermal thresholds of terrestrial life suggests that the same mechanisms would apply to other forms of chemical life. We propose a habitability index for complex life, h050, representing the mean orbital fraction of planetary surface that satisfies the temperature limits 0C less than T less than 50C. With the aid of a climate model tailored for the calculation of the surface temperature of Earth-like planets, we calculated h050 as a function of planet insolation S, and atmospheric columnar mass Natm, for a few earth-like atmospheric compositions. By displaying h050 as a function of S and Natm, we built up an atmospheric mass habitable zone (AMHZ) for complex life. At variance with the classic habitable zone, the inner edge of the complex life HZ is not affected by the uncertainties inherent to the calculation of the runaway greenhouse limit. The complex life HZ is significantly narrower than the HZ of dry planets. Our calculations illustrate how changes in ambient conditions dependent on S and Natm, such as temperature excursions and surface dose of secondary particles of cosmic rays, may influence the type of life potentially present at different epochs of planetary evolution inside the AMHZ.

Debris disks and the search for life in the universe

Debris disks and the search for life in the universe

Author:

Cataldi

Abstract:

Circumstellar debris disks are the extrasolar analogues of the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. They consist of comets and leftover planetesimals that continuously collide and produce circumstellar dust that can be observed as infrared excess or in resolved imaging. As an obvious outcome of the planet formation process, debris disks can help us constrain planet formation theories and learn about the history of our own solar system. This thesis presents observational studies of secondary gas in debris disks. It also discusses the astrobiological potential of debris disks created during impact events onto exoplanets.

Are we the First Ones?

The universe is 13.8 billion years old, while our planet formed just 4.5 billion years ago. Some scientists think this time gap means that life on other planets could be billions of years older than ours. However, new theoretical work suggests that present-day life is actually premature from a cosmic perspective.

"If you ask, 'When is life most likely to emerge?' you might naively say, 'Now,'" says lead author Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "But we find that the chance of life grows much higher in the distant future."

Life as we know it first became possible about 30 million years after the Big Bang, when the first stars seeded the cosmos with the necessary elements like carbon and oxygen. Life will end 10 trillion years from now when the last stars fade away and die. Loeb and his colleagues considered the relative likelihood of life between those two boundaries.

The dominant factor proved to be the lifetimes of stars. The higher a star's mass, the shorter its lifetime. Stars larger than about three times the sun's mass will expire before life has a chance to evolve.

Conversely, the smallest stars weigh less than 10 percent as much as the Sun. They will glow for 10 trillion years, giving life ample time to emerge on any planets they host. As a result, the probability of life grows over time. In fact, chances of life are 1000 times higher in the distant future than now.

"So then you may ask, why aren't we living in the future next to a low-mass star?" says Loeb.

"One possibility is we're premature. Another possibility is that the environment around a low-mass star is hazardous to life."

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Hunting for Life Bearing Exoplanets

How to Identify Civilizations Trying to Repair Their Planet's Environment

SET-E: The Search for Extraterrestrial Environmentalism

Authors:

Montet et al

Abstract:

There is currently no evidence for life on any known exoplanet. Here, we propose a form of "galactic anthropology" to detect not only the existence of life on transiting exoplanets, but also the existence of environmentalism movements. By observing the planet's atmosphere over long time baselines, the destruction and recovery of a hole in an exoplanet's ozone layer may be observable. While not readily detectable for any one system with JWST, by binning together observations of hundreds of systems we can finally determine the occurrence rate of environmental movements on Earthlike planets in the galaxy, a number we term eta-Green-Earth.

Answer to the FERMI PARADOX? ET is Dead, Died Young

In research published in the journal Astrobiology, we argue that early extinction could be the cosmic default for life in the universe. This is because the earliest habitable conditions may be unstable.

In our “Gaian Bottleneck” model, planets need to be inhabited in order to remain habitable. So even if the emergence of life is common, its persistence may be rare.

Mars, Venus and Earth were more similar to each other in their first billion years than they are today. Even if only one of the planets saw the emergence of life, this era coincided with heavy bombardment from asteroids, which could have spread life between the planets.

But about 1.5 billion years after formation, Venus started to experience runaway heating and Mars experienced runaway cooling. If Mars and Venus once harboured life, that life quickly went extinct.

Even if wet rocky Earth-like planets are in the “Goldilocks Zone” of their host stars, it seems that runaway freezing or heating may be their default fate.

Large impactors and huge variation in the amounts of water and greenhouse gases can induce positive feedbacks cycles that push planets away from habitable conditions.

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Could the Earliest Life in the Universe Arise on Carbon Worlds First?

Our Earth consists of silicate rocks and an iron core with a thin veneer of water and life. But the first potentially habitable worlds to form might have been very different. New research suggests that planet formation in the early universe might have created carbon planets consisting of graphite, carbides, and diamond. Astronomers might find these diamond worlds by searching a rare class of stars.

"This work shows that even stars with a tiny fraction of the carbon in our solar system can host planets," says lead author and Harvard University graduate student Natalie Mashian.

"We have good reason to believe that alien life will be carbon-based, like life on Earth, so this also bodes well for the possibility of life in the early universe," she adds.

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Perspectives on Comets, Comet-like Asteroids, and Their Predisposition to Provide an Environment That Is Friendly to Life

Perspectives on Comets, Comet-like Asteroids, and Their Predisposition to Provide an Environment That Is Friendly to Life

Authors:

Bosiek et al

Abstract:

In recent years, studies have shown that there are many similarities between comets and asteroids. In some cases, it cannot even be determined to which of these groups an object belongs. This is especially true for objects found beyond the main asteroid belt. Because of the lack of comet fragments, more progress has been made concerning the chemical composition of asteroids. In particular, the SMASSII classification establishes a link between the reflecting spectra and chemical composition of asteroids and meteorites.

To find clues for the chemical structure of comets, the parameters of all known asteroids of the SMASSII classification were compared to those of comet groups like the Encke-type comets, the Jupiter-family comets, and the Halley-type comets, as well as comet-like objects like the damocloids and the centaurs. Fifty-six SMASSII objects similar to comets were found and are categorized as comet-like asteroids in this work.

Aside from the chemistry, it is assumed that the available energy on these celestial bodies plays an important role concerning habitability. For the determination of the available energy, the effective temperature was calculated. Additionally, the size of these objects was considered in order to evaluate the possibility of a liquid water core, which provides an environment that is more likely to support processes necessary to create the building blocks of life. Further study of such objects could be notable for the period of the Late Heavy Bombardment and could therefore provide important implications for our understanding of the inner workings of the prebiotic evolution within the Solar System since the beginning

Evo-SETI SCALE to measure Life on Exoplanets

Evo-SETI SCALE to measure Life on Exoplanets

Author:

Maccone

Abstract:

Darwinian Evolution over the last 3.5 billion years was an increase in the number of living species from 1 (RNA?) to the current 50 million. This increasing trend in time looks like being exponential, but one may not assume an exactly exponential curve since many species went extinct in the past, even in mass extinctions. Thus, the simple exponential curve must be replaced by a stochastic process having an exponential mean value. Borrowing from financial mathematics (“Black–Scholes models”), this “exponential” stochastic process is called Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM), and its probability density function (pdf) is a lognormal (not a Gaussian) (Proof: see ref. Maccone [3], Chapter 30, and ref. Maccone [4]). Lognormal also is the pdf of the statistical number of communicating ExtraTerrestrial (ET) civilizations in the Galaxy at a certain fixed time, like a snapshot: this result was found in 2008 by this author as his solution to the Statistical Drake Equation of SETI (Proof: see ref. Maccone [1]). Thus, the GBM of Darwinian Evolution may also be regarded as the extension in time of the Statistical Drake equation (Proof: see ref. Maccone [4]). But the key step ahead made by this author in his Evo-SETI (Evolution and SETI) mathematical model was to realize that LIFE also is just a b-lognormal in time: every living organism (a cell, a human, a civilization, even an ET civilization) is born at a certain time b (“birth”), grows up to a peak p (with an ascending inflexion point in between, a for adolescence), then declines from p to s (senility, i.e. descending inflexion point) and finally declines linearly and dies at a final instant d (death). In other words, the infinite tail of the b-lognormal was cut away and replaced by just a straight line between s and d, leading to simple mathematical formulae (“History Formulae”) allowing one to find this “finite b-lognormal” when the three instants b, s, and d are assigned.

Next the crucial Peak-Locus Theorem comes. It means that the GBM exponential may be regarded as the geometric locus of all the peaks of a one-parameter (i.e. the peak time p) family of b-lognormals. Since b-lognormals are pdf-s, the area under each of them always equals 1 (normalization condition) and so, going from left to right on the time axis, the b-lognormals become more and more “peaky”, and so they last less and less in time. This is precisely what happened in human history: civilizations that lasted millennia (like Ancient Greece and Rome) lasted just centuries (like the Italian Renaissance and Portuguese, Spanish, French, British and USA Empires) but they were more and more advanced in the “level of civilization”. This “level of civilization” is what physicists call ENTROPY.

Also, in refs. Maccone [3] and [4], this author proved that, for all GBMs, the (Shannon) Entropy of the b-lognormals in his Peak-Locus Theorem grows LINEARLY in time. The Molecular Clock, well known to geneticists since 50 years, shows that the DNA base-substitutions occur LINEARLY in time since they are neutral with respect to Darwinian selection. In simple words: DNA evolved by obeying the laws of quantum physics only (microscopic laws) and not by obeying assumed “Darwinian selection laws” (macroscopic laws). This is Kimura׳s neutral theory of molecular evolution. The conclusion is that the Molecular Clock and the b-lognormal Entropy are the same thing.

At last, we reach the new, original result justifying the publication of this paper. On exoplanets, molecular evolution is proceeding at about the same rate as it did proceed on Earth: rather independently of the physical conditions of the exoplanet, if the DNA had the possibility to evolve in water initially. Thus, Evo-Entropy, i.e. the (Shannon) Entropy of the generic b-lognormal of the Peak-Locus Theorem, provides the Evo-SETI SCALE to measure the evolution of life on exoplanets.