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Cited by 198Space Science and Extraterrestrial LifeStellar, planetary, and galactic studiesPlanetary Science and Exploration

ABIOTIC OZONE AND OXYGEN IN ATMOSPHERES SIMILAR TO PREBIOTIC EARTH

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Domagal-Goldman, Shawn D., Segura, Antígona, Claire, Mark W., Robinson, Tyler D., Meadows, Victoria S.·2014·The Astrophysical Journal
DOI 10.1088/0004-637x/792/2/90
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Abstract

The search for life on planets outside our solar system will use spectroscopic identification of atmospheric biosignatures.The most robust remotely detectable potential biosignature is considered to be the detection of oxygen (O 2 ) or ozone (O 3 ) simultaneous to methane (CH 4 ) at levels indicating fluxes from the planetary surface in excess of those that could be produced abiotically.Here we use an altitude-dependent photochemical model with the enhanced lower boundary conditions necessary to carefully explore abiotic O 2 and O 3 production on lifeless planets with a wide variety of volcanic gas fluxes and stellar energy distributions.On some of these worlds, we predict limited O 2 and O 3 buildup, caused by fast chemical production of these gases.This results in detectable abiotic O 3 and CH 4 features in the UV-visible, but no detectable abiotic O 2 features.Thus, simultaneous detection of O 3 and CH 4 by a UV-visible mission is not a strong biosignature without proper contextual information.Discrimination between biological and abiotic sources of O 2 and O 3 is possible through analysis of the stellar and atmospheric context-particularly redox state and O atom inventory-of the planet in question.Specifically, understanding the spectral characteristics of the star and obtaining a broad wavelength range for planetary spectra should allow more robust identification of false positives for life.This highlights the importance of wide spectral coverage for future exoplanet characterization missions.Specifically, discrimination between true and false positives may require spectral observations that extend into infrared wavelengths and provide contextual information on the planet's atmospheric chemistry.

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  • Several groups have studied the possibility of detectable levels of oxygen and ozone formation in CO2-rich planets orbiting M dwarfs, FGKM stars with low-H2/high-CO2 atmospheres, and pre-main sequence M stars.

    “Recently, several groups have studied the possibility of detectable levels of oxygen and ozone formation in CO2-rich planets orbiting M dwarfs (Hu et al., 2012; Tian et al., 2014), FGKM stars with low-H2/high-CO2 atmospheres (Domagal-Goldman et al., 2014), and pre-main sequence M stars (Luger and Barnes, 2015).”

    From The Astrobiology Primer v2.0 (2016) · cites this paper as Domagal-Goldman et al., 2014

    Section 3.2 describes simulations for planets orbiting F-, G-, K-, and M-type stars, and Section 4.3 links detectable abiotic ozone to high-CO2, low-H2 atmospheres. But Section 4.2 says the modeled oxygen feature would require an exceptionally high signal-to-noise ratio to detect, so the citation does not support detectable levels of both oxygen and ozone. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • In certain planetary environments with high UV fluxes and abundant CO2, it is possible to simultaneously detect abiotically produced O3 and CH4 in the UV-visible, making further contextualization of the planet vital to eliminate false-positive detections of life.

    “In certain planetary environments with high UV fluxes and abundant CO2, it is possible to simultaneously detect abiotically produced O3 and CH4 in the UV-visible, making further contextualization of the planet vital to eliminate false-positive detections of life (Domagal-Goldman et al., 2014).”

    From The Astrobiology Primer v2.0 (2016) · cites this paper as Domagal-Goldman et al., 2014

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Domagal-Goldman, S. D., Segura, A., Claire, M. W., Robinson, T. D., & Meadows, V. S.
Affiliations
  • Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
  • NASA Astrobiology Institute (US)
  • University of St Andrews (GB)
  • Ames Research Center (US)
ORCID
Venue
The Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Published
2014-08-20
Volume
792
Issue
2
Pages
90
ISSN
  • 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
  • 1538-4357
DOI
10.1088/0004-637x/792/2/90
OpenAlex
W2105974755
Cited by
198
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 15
FWCI
10.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • The Astrophysical Journal (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • NASA STI Repository (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) (submittedVersion)
  • St Andrews Research Repository (St Andrews Research Repository) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNH05ZDA001C)
  • Oak Ridge Associated Universities
  • University of Washington
  • NASA Astrobiology Institute
  • Ames Research Center
  • NASA Headquarters
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Planetary Science and Exploration
Keywords
methane, exoplanet biosignatures, photochemical modeling, volcanic gas flux, stellar energy distribution, false positives, redox state, UV-Vis spectroscopy, exoplanet characterization, prebiotic Earth

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