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IDENTIFYING PLANETARY BIOSIGNATURE IMPOSTORS: SPECTRAL FEATURES OF CO AND O 4 RESULTING FROM ABIOTIC O 2 /O 3 PRODUCTION
Open accessAbstract
O 2 and O 3 have been long considered the most robust individual biosignature gases in a planetary atmosphere, yet multiple mechanisms that may produce them in the absence of life have been described. However, these abiotic planetary mechanisms modify the environment in potentially identifiable ways. Here we briefly discuss two of the most detectable spectral discriminants for abiotic O 2 /O 3 : CO and O 4 . We produce the first explicit self-consistent simulations of these spectral discriminants as they may be seen by James Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ). If JWST -NIRISS and/or NIRSpec observe CO (2.35, 4.6 μ m) in conjunction with CO 2 (1.6, 2.0, 4.3 μ m) in the transmission spectrum of a terrestrial planet it could indicate robust CO 2 photolysis and suggest that a future detection of O 2 or O 3 might not be biogenic. Strong O 4 bands seen in transmission at 1.06 and 1.27 μ m could be diagnostic of a post-runaway O 2 -dominated atmosphere from massive H-escape. We find that for these false positive scenarios, CO at 2.35 μ m, CO 2 at 2.0 and 4.3 μ m, and O 4 at 1.27 μ m are all stronger features in transmission than O 2 /O 3 and could be detected with S/Ns ≳ 3 for an Earth-size planet orbiting a nearby M dwarf star with as few as 10 transits, assuming photon-limited noise. O 4 bands could also be sought in UV/VIS/NIR reflected light (at 0.345, 0.36, 0.38, 0.445, 0.475, 0.53, 0.57, 0.63, 1.06, and 1.27 μ m) by a next generation direct-imaging telescope such as LUVOIR/HDST or HabEx and would indicate an oxygen atmosphere too massive to be biologically produced.
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“because CO has few abiotic sinks and detectable spectral features (42), mantle-derived methane could readily be identified by coexisting CO.”
From Disequilibrium biosignatures over Earth history and implications for detecting exoplanet life (2018) · cites this paper as [42]
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BackgroundInfluentialSelf-citationExoplanet Biosignatures: A Review of Remotely Detectable Signs of Life
Schwieterman, E. W., Kiang, N. Y.-L., Parenteau, M. N., Harman, C. E., DasSarma, S., Fisher, T. M., Arney, G., Hartnett, H. E., Reinhard, C. T., Olson, S. L., et al. (2017) · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · Cited by 452
Self-citationConstraining the climate and ocean pH of the early Earth with a geological carbon cycle model
Krissansen-Totton, J., Arney, G. N., & Catling, D. C. (2018) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1721296115 · Cited by 348
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BackgroundSelf-citationThe Pale Orange Dot: The Spectrum and Habitability of Hazy Archean Earth
Arney, G., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., Meadows, V. S., Wolf, E. T., Schwieterman, E., Charnay, B., Claire, M., Hébrard, E., & Trainer, M. G. (2016) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2015.1422 · Cited by 327
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Self-citationThe habitability of planets orbiting M-dwarf stars
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BackgroundExoplanet Biosignatures: Understanding Oxygen as a Biosignature in the Context of Its Environment
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“Each of these mechanisms leaves telltale signs in the planetary environment that can point to the abiotic source of the O2 (e.g., Schwieterman et al., 2015b, 2016).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationThe habitability of planets orbiting M-dwarf stars
Shields, A. L., Ballard, S. A., & Johnson, J. A. (2016) · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · Cited by 256
The Detectability and Characterization of the TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanet Atmospheres with JWST
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“…abundance greatly exceeding biogenic oxygen production on Earth and may therefore indicate a planet that has undergone vigorous water photolysis and subsequent loss during the protracted super-luminous pre-main-sequence phase faced by late M dwarfs (Luger & Barnes 2015; Schwieterman et al. 2016).”
BackgroundSelf-citationTilley, M. A., Segura, A., Meadows, V., Hawley, S., & Davenport, J. (2018) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2017.1794 · Cited by 271
“Similarly, modeling can provide the stellar and atmospheric context necessary to correctly identify spectral features due to abiotic false positives for O2 (Harman et al., 2015; Schwieterman et al., 2016; Meadows, 2017).”
Self-citationExoplanet Biosignatures: A Framework for Their Assessment
Catling, D. C., Krissansen-Totton, J., Kiang, N. Y., Crisp, D., Robinson, T. D., DasSarma, S., Rushby, A. J., Del Genio, A., Bains, W., & Domagal-Goldman, S. (2018) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2017.1737 · Cited by 225
“In the proposed cases of abiotic oxygen, various diagnostics are possible (Schwieterman et al., 2016; Meadows, 2017) (see also Meadows et al., 2018, in this issue).”
BackgroundSelf-citationKopparapu, R., Wolf, E. T., Arney, G., Batalha, N. E., Haqq-Misra, J. D., Grimm, S. L., & Heng, K. (2017) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa7cf9 · Cited by 213
“It has been validated against solar system objects (Arney et al. 2014; Robinson et al. 2014) and has been used to study a wide variety of types of atmospheres (Robinson et al. 2011; Arney et al. 2016; Schwieterman et al. 2016; Charnay et al. 2015).”
BackgroundMethodSelf-citationDisequilibrium biosignatures over Earth history and implications for detecting exoplanet life
Krissansen-Totton, J., Olson, S., & Catling, D. C. (2018) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.aao5747 · Cited by 177
PREDICTIONS OF THE ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION OF GJ 1132b
Schaefer, L., Wordsworth, R., Berta-Thompson, Z. K., & Sasselov, D. (2016) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/0004-637x/829/2/63 · Cited by 183
“Detection of O2–O2 collisionallyinduced absorption features may also be used to constrain the presence and total pressure of a massive O2 atmosphere (Schwieterman et al. 2016).”
BackgroundReflections on O 2 as a Biosignature in Exoplanetary Atmospheres
Meadows, V. S. (2017) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2016.1578 · Cited by 173
Self-citationArney, G., Meadows, V. S., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., Deming, D., Robinson, T. D., Mendoza, G. T., Wolf, E. T., & Schwieterman, E. W. (2017) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/836/1/49 · Cited by 179
“To simulate JWST observations, we use the model described in Deming et al. (2009), and our simulated observations employ the JWST parameters described in Schwieterman et al. (2016).”
BackgroundMethodSelf-citationExoplanet Biosignatures: Observational Prospects
Fujii, Y., Angerhausen, D., Deitrick, R., Domagal-Goldman, S., Grenfell, J. L., Hori, Y., Kane, S. R., Pallé, E., Rauer, H., Siegler, N., et al. (2018) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2017.1733 · Cited by 193
“27 mm), potentially diagnostic for a false-positive scenario for O2 as a biosignature (Schwieterman et al., 2016).”
BackgroundInfluentialSelf-citationEvolved Climates and Observational Discriminants for the TRAPPIST-1 Planetary System
Lincowski, A., Meadows, V. S., Crisp, D., Robinson, T. D., Luger, R., Lustig‐Yaeger, J., & Arney, G. (2018) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aae36a · Cited by 163
Self-citationKrissansen-Totton, J., Garland, R., Irwin, P., & Catling, D. C. (2018) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aad564 · Cited by 145
The Habitability of Proxima Centauri b: Environmental States and Observational Discriminants
Meadows, V. S., Arney, G., Schwieterman, E. W., Lustig‐Yaeger, J., Lincowski, A., Robinson, T., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., Deitrick, R., Barnes, R. K., Fleming, D. P., et al. (2018) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2016.1589 · Cited by 164
“The presence of strong O4 bands in the visible (0.35–0.65 mm) is diagnostic of massive O2 atmospheres (Schwieterman et al., 2016).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationExoplanet Biosignatures: Observational Prospects
Fujii, Y., Angerhausen, D., Deitrick, R., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., Grenfell, J. L., Hori, Y., Kane, S. R., Πάλλη, Ε., Rauer, H., Siegler, N., et al. (2018) · doi:10.7892/boris.126822 · Cited by 162
Self-citationThe Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: 1.1–1.9 GHz Observations of 692 Nearby Stars
Enriquez, J. E., Siemion, A. P. V., Foster, G., Gajjar, V., Hellbourg, G., Hickish, J., Isaacson, H. T., Price, D. C., Croft, S., DeBoer, D. R., et al. (2017) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa8d1b · Cited by 147
“…more immediate opportunities, but the extreme difficulty of attaining a sufficiently significant detection of potentially biotic constituents limits this technique to a handful of potential targets out to perhaps 10 pc (Segura et al. 2005; Rodler & López-Morales 2014; Schwieterman et al. 2016).”
BackgroundExoplanet Biosignatures: Future Directions
Walker, S. I., Bains, W., Cronin, L., DasSarma, S., Danielache, S. O., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., Kaçar, B., Kiang, N. Y.-L., Lenardic, A., Reinhard, C. T., et al. (2018) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2017.1738 · Cited by 137
“This is being pursued through modeling (Domagal-Goldman et al., 2014; Harman et al., 2015; Luger and Barnes, 2015; Krissansen-Totten et al., 2016; Schwieterman et al., 2016), but is a much more difficult problem observationally.”
BackgroundMethodSelf-citationA super-Earth and two sub-Neptunes transiting the nearby and quiet M dwarf TOI-270
Günther, M. N., Pozuelos, F. J., Dittmann, J., Dragomir, D., Kane, S. R., Daylan, T., Feinstein, A. D., Huang, C. X., Morton, T. D., Bonfanti, A., et al. (2019) · Nature Astronomy · doi:10.1038/s41550-019-0845-5 · Cited by 123
PREDICTIONS OF THE ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION OF GJ 1132b
Schaefer, L., Wordsworth, R., Sasselov, D. D., & Berta-Thompson, Z. K. (2016) · DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) · Cited by 117
The Pale Orange Dot: The Spectrum and Habitability of Hazy Archean Earth
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Self-citationStrategies for Constraining the Atmospheres of Temperate Terrestrial Planets with JWST
Batalha, N. E., Lewis, N. K., Line, M. R., Valenti, J. A., & Stevenson, K. B. (2018) · The Astrophysical Journal Letters · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aab896 · Cited by 105
“We do not show the results for detecting N2 because it is void of molecular features unless temperatures are very high (Schwieterman et al. 2016).”
BackgroundA super-Earth and two sub-Neptunes transiting the nearby and quiet M dwarf TOI-270
Günther, M. N., Pozuelos, F. J., Dittmann, J., Dragomir, D., Kane, S. R., Daylan, T., Feinstein, A. D., Huang, C. X., Morton, T. D., Bonfanti, A., et al. (2019) · Cited by 103
Origins of life: a problem for physics, a key issues review
Walker, S. I. (2017) · Reports on Progress in Physics · doi:10.1088/1361-6633/aa7804 · Cited by 94
“Due to the ambiguity associated with many putative biosignatures REF and the very real potential for detecting false positives for life [31], the state of the art in exoplanet life detection is currently focused on identifying a suite of biosignature gases, combined with deep knowledge of planetary context.”
BackgroundFalse Negatives for Remote Life Detection on Ocean-Bearing Planets: Lessons from the Early Earth
Reinhard, C. T., Olson, S. L., Schwieterman, E. W., & Lyons, T. W. (2017) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2016.1598 · Cited by 93
“…an important cautionary note in the search for compelling biosignatures, these studies also identified a suite of contextual tools that can be used to diagnose high-O2 false positives under many circumstances (Domagal-Goldman et al., 2014; Harman et al., 2015; Schwieterman et al., 2015, 2016).”
BackgroundSelf-citationPhotochemistry of Anoxic Abiotic Habitable Planet Atmospheres: Impact of New H 2 O Cross Sections
Ranjan, S., Schwieterman, E. W., Harman, C. E., Fateev, A., Sousa‐Silva, C., Seager, S., & Hu, R. (2020) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab9363 · Cited by 96
“…and proposed potential to discriminate the presence of life on exoplanets (Snellen et al. 2010; Brogi et al. 2014; Rodler & López-Morales 2014; Schwieterman et al. 2016, 2019; Wang et al. 2016; KrissansenTotton et al. 2018; Meadows et al. 2018), but we consider the implications for other…”
BackgroundSelf-citationOrganic Haze as a Biosignature in Anoxic Earth-like Atmospheres
Arney, G., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., & Meadows, V. (2017) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2017.1666 · Cited by 85
“This is similar to—but perhaps more obvious than—the case for oxygen as a biosignature given that several pathways for abiotic oxygen production have recently come to light (Domagal-Goldman et al., 2014; Harman et al., 2015; Luger and Barnes, 2015; Schwieterman et al., 2016).”
BackgroundSelf-citationA review of exoplanetary biosignatures
Grenfell, J. L. (2017) · Physics Reports · doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2017.08.003 · Cited by 74
Exoplanet Biosignatures: At the Dawn of a New Era of Planetary Observations
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“They then scrutinize how to observe for them with regard to detectability of particular gases (Schwieterman et al., 2015b, 2016) as well as surface biosignatures arising from biological pigments in the absence of clear atmospheric signals, such as those summarized in the previous section from…”
BackgroundSelf-citationThe hidden simplicity of biology
Davies, P. C. W., & Walker, S. I. (2016) · Reports on Progress in Physics · doi:10.1088/0034-4885/79/10/102601 · Cited by 62
Harman, C. E., Felton, R. C., Hu, R., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., Segura, A., Tian, F., & Kasting, J. F. (2018) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aadd9b · Cited by 67
“Secondary features such as the absence of the O2 dimer would rule out O2>0.5 bar (Misra et al. 2014), and high signal-to-noise measurements of several spectral features may place a useful lower limit on total atmospheric pressure (Des Marais et al. 2002; Misra et al. 2014), although these types of observations would b…”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationAlien Mindscapes—A Perspective on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
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“However, none of these signatures are convincingly unambiguous evidence of life’s presence as both biological and abiotic processes alike can produce them (Schwieterman et al., 2016).”
BackgroundSensitive probing of exoplanetary oxygen via mid-infrared collisional absorption
Fauchez, T. J., Villanueva, G. L., Schwieterman, E. W., Turbet, M., Arney, G., Pidhorodetska, D., Kopparapu, R. K., Mandell, A. M., & Domagal-Goldman, S. D. (2020) · Nature Astronomy · doi:10.1038/s41550-019-0977-7 · Cited by 56
Self-citationAtmospheric Seasonality as an Exoplanet Biosignature
Olson, S. L., Schwieterman, E. W., Reinhard, C. T., Ridgwell, A. J., Kane, S. R., Meadows, V. S., & Lyons, T. W. (2018) · The Astrophysical Journal Letters · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aac171 · Cited by 62
“…be further enhanced by the detection of H2O, strong Rayleigh scattering, and N2–N2 collisional absorption (Domagal-Goldman et al. 2014; Schwieterman et al. 2015) and by excluding significant CO, which would be expected to arise from CO2 photolysis (Harman et al. 2015; Schwieterman et al. 2016).”
BackgroundSelf-citationFalse Negatives for Remote Life Detection on Ocean-Bearing Planets: Lessons from the Early Earth.
Reinhard, C. T., Olson, S. L., Schwieterman, E. W., & Lyons, T. W. (2017) · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · Cited by 48
Self-citationLincowski, A., Lustig-Yaeger, J., & Meadows, V. (2019) · Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab2385 · Cited by 39
Self-citationTechnology gap assessment for a future large-aperture ultraviolet-optical-infrared space telescope
Bolcar, M. R., Balasubramanian, K., Crooke, J. A., Feinberg, L. D., Quijada, M. A., Rauscher, B. J., Redding, D. C., Rioux, N., Shaklan, S., Stahl, H. P., et al. (2016) · Journal of Astronomical Telescopes Instruments and Systems · doi:10.1117/1.jatis.2.4.041209 · Cited by 44
Rethinking CO Antibiosignatures in the Search for Life Beyond the Solar System
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Self-citationProbabilistic Constraints on the Mass and Composition of Proxima b
Bixel, A., & Apai, D. (2017) · The Astrophysical Journal Letters · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aa5f51 · Cited by 39
“As Proxima is the nearest neighbor to the solar system, it has been suggested as a target for future space missions, including those hoping to characterize its atmosphere and search for life (e.g., Belikov et al. 2015; Schwieterman et al. 2016).”
BackgroundPatty, L., ten Kate, I. L., Buma, W. J., van Spanning, R. J. M., Steinbach, G., Ariese, F., & Snik, F. (2019) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2019.2050 · Cited by 41
“However, detection of these gases is not free of false-positive scenarios [12, 13, 14, 15].”
Circular spectropolarimetric sensing of chiral photosystems in decaying leaves
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Faint objects in motion: the new frontier of high precision astrometry
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Self-citationRethinking CO Antibiosignatures in the Search for Life Beyond the Solar System
Schwieterman, E. W., Reinhard, C. T., Olson, S. L., Ozaki, K., Harman, C. E., Hong, P. K., & Lyons, T. W. (2019) · NASA STI Repository (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) · doi:10.6082/87s5e-7ar65 · Cited by 32
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Self-citationSchwieterman, E. W., Olson, S. L., Pidhorodetska, D., Reinhard, C. T., Ganti, A., Fauchez, T. J., Bastelberger, S., Crouse, J., Ridgwell, A. J., & Lyons, T. W. (2022) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac8cfb · Cited by 36
Self-citationThe Demographics of Terrestrial Planets in the Venus Zone
Ostberg, C. M., Kane, S. R., Li, Z., Schwieterman, E. W., Hill, M. L., Bott, K., Dalba, P. A., Fetherolf, T., Head, J. W., III, & Unterborn, C. T. (2023) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/acbfaf · Cited by 31
Self-citationDetectors and cooling technology for direct spectroscopic biosignature characterization
Rauscher, B. J., Canavan, E. R., Moseley, S. H., Sadleir, J. E., & Stevenson, T. R. (2016) · Journal of Astronomical Telescopes Instruments and Systems · doi:10.1117/1.jatis.2.4.041212 · Cited by 30
“With regard to the spectral resolution value, Des Marais et al.12 reported that R ¼ 69 to 72 was well matched to O2 at 760 nm and 1.27 μm (see their Table 1).”
BackgroundInfluentialDittmann, J., Irwin, J. M., Charbonneau, D., Berta-Thompson, Z. K., & Newton, E. R. (2017) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aa855b · Cited by 29
“…surveys like MEarth to potentially be sensitive to planets in the habitable zone (Berta et al. 2012b) and for instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to potentially characterize their atmospheres (Berta et al. 2012a; Schwieterman et al. 2016).”
Lustig‐Yaeger, J., Meadows, V., & Lincowski, A. (2019) · The Astrophysical Journal Letters · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ab5965 · Cited by 28
“…upon by Zahnle et al. (2006); this code is described in detail in Meadows et al. (2018b) and has been used extensively for terrestrial exoplanet photochemical modeling across a broad range of redox states (e.g. Segura et al. 2005; Arney et al. 2016, 2017; Schwieterman et al. 2016; Arney 2019).”
MethodSelf-citationThe O2 A-Band in the Fluxes and Polarization of Starlight Reflected by Earth-Like Exoplanets
Fauchez, T. J., Rossi, L., & Stam, D. M. (2017) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa6e53 · Cited by 28
“…be visible in transmitted spectra at 1.06 and 1.27 μm or in UV/VIS/NIR reflected light spectra by a next-generation directimaging telescopesuch as LUVOIR/HDST or HabEx could be a sign of an abiotic dioxygen-dominated atmosphere that suffered massive Hescape (see Schwieterman et al. 2016a, 2016b).”
BackgroundInfluentialTremblay, L., Line, M. R., Stevenson, K., Kataria, T., Zellem, R. T., Fortney, J. J., & Morley, C. (2020) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab64dd · Cited by 28
TOI-2257 b: A highly eccentric long-period sub-Neptune transiting a nearby M dwarf
Schanche, N., Pozuelos, F. J., Günther, M. N., Wells, R. D., Burgasser, A. J., Chinchilla, P., Delrez, L., Ducrot, E., Garcia, L. J., Chew, Y. G. M., et al. (2021) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202142280 · Cited by 27
The Future of Astrometry in Space
Vallenari, A. (2018) · Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences · doi:10.3389/fspas.2018.00011 · Cited by 29
“This would provide a target data base to be used to search planetary atmospheres for exo-life with the next generation of space telescopes such as James Webb Space Telescope, WFIRST, and E-ELT (Schwieterman et al., 2016).”
BackgroundPatty, L., Kuhn, J. G., Lambrev, P. H., Spadaccia, S., Hoeijmakers, H. J., Keller, C. U., Mulder, W., Pallichadath, V., Poch, O., Snik, F., et al. (2021) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202140845 · Cited by 30
Quantifying the Influence of Jupiter on the Earth’s Orbital Cycles
Horner, J., Vervoort, P., Kane, S. R., Ceja, A. Y., Waltham, D., Gilmore, J., & Turner, S. K. (2019) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab5365 · Cited by 22
An Overview of Exoplanet Biosignatures
Schwieterman, E. W., & Leung, M. (2024) · Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry · doi:10.2138/rmg.2024.90.13 · Cited by 36
Self-citationHow to Characterize the Atmosphere of a Transiting Exoplanet
Deming, D., Louie, D. R., & Sheets, H. (2018) · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific · doi:10.1088/1538-3873/aae5c5 · Cited by 19
“…superEarths (Seager et al. 2009; Deming et al. 2009; Kaltenegger & Traub 2009; Belu et al. 2011; Shabram et al. 2011; Beichman et al. 2014; Barstow et al. 2015; Greene et al. 2016; Kreidberg & Loeb 2016; Schwieterman et al. 2016; Arney et al. 2017; Morley et al. 2017; Batalha et al. 2018).”
BackgroundSelf-citationTian, F., Güdel, M., Johnstone, C. P., Lammer, H., Luger, R., & Odert, P. (2018) · Space Science Reviews · doi:10.1007/s11214-018-0490-9 · Cited by 17
Self-citationRemote Sensing of Homochirality: A Proxy for the Detection of Extraterrestrial Life
Patty, L., ten Kate, I. L., Sparks, W. B., & Snik, F. (2018) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-444-64027-7.00002-1 · Cited by 20
Ranjan, S., Schwieterman, E. W., Leung, M., Harman, C. E., & Hu, R. (2023) · The Astrophysical Journal Letters · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ad037c · Cited by 22
Self-citationQuantifying the Influence of Jupiter on the Earth’s Orbital Cycles
Horner, J., Vervoort, P., Kane, S. R., Ceja, A. Y., Waltham, D. A., Gilmore, J. B., & Kirtland Turner, S. (2020) · University of Southern Queensland ePrints (University of Southern Queensland) · Cited by 17
Multibeam Blind Search of Targeted SETI Observations toward 33 Exoplanet Systems with FAST
Luan, X.-H., Tao, Z.-Z., Zhao, H., Huang, B.-L., Li, S.-Y., Liu, C., Wang, H., Liu, W., Zhang, T.-J., Gajjar, V., et al. (2023) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/acb706 · Cited by 17
Limitation of Atmospheric Composition by Combustion–Explosion in Exoplanetary Atmospheres
Grenfell, J. L., Gebauer, S., Godolt, M., Stracke, B., Lehmann, R., & Rauer, H. (2018) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aab2a9 · Cited by 16
Matsuo, T., Greene, T. P., Johnson, R. R., Mcmurray, R. E., Roellig, T. L., & Ennico, K. (2019) · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific · doi:10.1088/1538-3873/ab42f1 · Cited by 15
Surface and Temporal Biosignatures
Schwieterman, E. W. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-55333-7_69 · Cited by 13
“Accordingly, attention must be paid to the planetary environment and clues afforded by other gases in the planet’s atmosphere to evaluate the origin of a putative biosignature gas (e.g., Schwieterman et al. 2016; Meadows 2017; and see “Biosignature False Positives” in this volume).”
BackgroundSelf-citationBerdyugina, S. V., Kuhn, J. R., Langlois, M., Moretto, G., Krissansen‐Totton, J., Grenfell, J. L., Catling, D. C., Šantl‐Temkiv, T., Finster, K. W., Tarter, J., et al. (2018) · Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VII · doi:10.1117/12.2313781 · Cited by 12
Origins of Life: A Problem for PhysicsPreprint
Walker, S. I. (2017) · arXiv (Cornell University) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1705.08073 · Cited by 12
“Due to the ambiguity associated with many putative biosignatures REF and the very real potential for detecting false positives for life [31], the state of the art in exoplanet life detection is currently focused on identifying a suite of biosignature gases, combined with deep knowledge of planetary context.”
BackgroundMandell, A. M., Lustig‐Yaeger, J., Stevenson, K. B., & Staguhn, J. G. (2022) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ac83a5 · Cited by 11
The Implications of Thermal Hydrodynamic Atmospheric Escape on the TRAPPIST-1 Planets
Gialluca, M. T., Barnes, R., Meadows, V., Garcia, R., Birky, J., & Agol, E. (2024) · The Planetary Science Journal · doi:10.3847/psj/ad4454 · Cited by 11
Self-citationHigh-resolution Spectral Discriminants of Ocean Loss for M-dwarf Terrestrial Exoplanets
Leung, M., Meadows, V. S., & Lustig‐Yaeger, J. (2020) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab9012 · Cited by 11
“This absorption can be quite strong and broad, and for low resolution spectra, models predict that O2-O2 may be detectable with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, and would be a strong indicator of past ocean loss (Schwieterman et al. 2016; Lincowski et al. 2018; Lustig-Yaeger et al. 2019).”
BackgroundSelf-citationLisse, C. M., Desch, S. J., Unterborn, C. T., Kane, S. R., Young, P. R., Hartnett, H. E., Hinkel, N. R., Shim, S.-H. D., Mamajek, E. E., & Izenberg, N. R. (2020) · The Astrophysical Journal Letters · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ab9b91 · Cited by 11
Photochemical Oxygen in Non-1-bar CO2 Atmospheres of Terrestrial Exoplanets
James, T., & Hu, R. (2018) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aae2bb · Cited by 10
“The James Webb Space Telescope will have the capability to perform infrared spectroscopy of exoplanet atmospheres, including some of the potentially habitable worlds found by groundbased transit surveys (Dittmann et al. 2017; Gillon et al. 2017) and TESS (Schwieterman et al. 2016).”
BackgroundExpecting the unexpected in the search for extraterrestrial life
Vickers, P. (2020) · International Journal of Astrobiology · doi:10.1017/s1473550420000269 · Cited by 10
“…orbiting in the habitable zone of dwarf stars (e.g. Luger and Barnes, 2015), and (ii) a reassessment of various suggested ‘biosignatures’ (e.g. Schwieterman et al., 2016).3 Many other examples could be mentioned; e.g. NASEM (2018, p. 48f.): ‘It was previously thought that cores of 10 ME…”
BackgroundObserving Exoplanets with the James Webb Space Telescope
Beichman, C., & Greene, T. P. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-55333-7_85 · Cited by 10
Lethal Surface Ozone Concentrations Are Possible on Habitable Zone Exoplanets
Cooke, G. J., Marsh, D. R., Walsh, C. M., & Sainsbury-Martinez, F. (2024) · The Planetary Science Journal · doi:10.3847/psj/ad53c3 · Cited by 10
The Drake Equation as a Function of Spectral Type and Time
Haqq-Misra, J. D., & Kopparapu, R. (2018) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-811940-2.00013-7 · Cited by 7
“…suggest abiotic sources for O2 and O3 (Segura et al., 2007; Domagal-Goldman et al., 2014; Wordsworth and Pierrehumbert, 2014), although such a ‘false positive’ spectral signature might be discernable from inhabited planets by the detection of species such as CO and O4 (Schwieterman et al., 2016).”
BackgroundHarman, C. E., & Domagal-Goldman, S. D. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-55333-7_71 · Cited by 8
“CO 2 photolysis rates sufficient to produce detectable amounts of O 2 produce stoichiometric amounts of CO, which could be potentially detectable (Schwieterman et al. 2016; Wang et al. 2016).”
Self-citationThe TRAPPIST-1 JWST Community InitiativePreprint
Gillon, M., Meadows, V., Agol, E., Burgasser, A., Deming, D., Doyon, R., Fortney, J., Kreidberg, L., Owen, J., Selsis, F., et al. (2020) · Vol. 52, Issue 2 · doi:10.3847/25c2cfeb.afbf0205 · Cited by 27
Self-citationSung, K., Wishnow, E. H., Crawford, T. J., Nemchick, D. J., Drouin, B. J., Toon, G. C., Yu, S., Payne, V. H., & Jiang, J. H. (2019) · Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer · doi:10.1016/j.jqsrt.2019.06.016 · Cited by 7
Implications of Abiotic Oxygen Buildup for Earth-like Complex Life
Lingam, M. (2020) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab737f · Cited by 6
“The identification of substantial abiotic O2 is feasible through a number of avenues, of which two of the best known metrics are dimer O2-O2 collisional absorption bands at visible wavelengths and CO features in the mid-infrared (Misra et al. 2014; Schwieterman et al. 2016).”
BackgroundZhan, Z., Huang, J., Seager, S., Petkowski, J. J., & Ranjan, S. (2022) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac64a8 · Cited by 7
Kipping, D., & Wright, J. T. (2023) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad0cbe · Cited by 6
Gilbert-Janizek, S., Meadows, V., & Lustig‐Yaeger, J. (2024) · The Planetary Science Journal · doi:10.3847/psj/ad381e · Cited by 9
Self-citationGeoscience for Understanding Habitability in the Solar System and Beyond
Dehant, V., Debaille, V., Dobos, V., Gaillard, F., & Gillmann, C. (2019) · Repository of the Academy's Library (Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) · Cited by 7
Ozone destruction due to the recombination of oxygen atoms
Pershin, A. A., Torbin, A. P., Mikheyev, P. A., Kaiser, R. I., Mebel, A. M., & Azyazov, V. N. (2021) · The Journal of Chemical Physics · doi:10.1063/5.0064361 · Cited by 6
Venus as an Analog for Hot Earths
Arney, G. (2005) · University of Arizona Press eBooks · doi:10.2458/azu_uapress_9780816540068-ch014 · Cited by 12
“In light of this, several previous studies have discussed O2 biosignature false positives (Hu et al., 2012; DomagalGoldman et al., 2014; Tian et al., 2014; Gao et al., 2015; Harman et al.,2015; Schwieterman et al 2016; Meadows et al 2017; Wordsworth & Pierrehumbert 2014; Schaefer et al 2016).”
BackgroundSelf-citationHarman, C. E., & Domagal-Goldman, S. D. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-30648-3_71-1 · Cited by 6
Self-citationThe Impact of Extended CO2 Cross Sections on Temperate Anoxic Planet Atmospheres
Broussard, W., Schwieterman, E. W., Sousa‐Silva, C., Sanger-Johnson, G., Ranjan, S., & Vénot, O. (2025) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/adaaf0 · Cited by 4
Self-citationRauscher, B. J., Nagler, P. C., Sadleir, J. E., Moseley, S. H., & Greenhouse, M. A. (2018) · X-Ray, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy · doi:10.1117/12.2313730 · Cited by 4
Peer Complexity in Big History
Nielsen, J. N. (2025) · Journal of Big History · doi:10.22339/jbh.v8i1.8111 · Cited by 3
Biosignatures of the Earth I. Airborne spectropolarimetric detection of photosynthetic life
Patty, L., Kuhn, J. G., Lambrev, P. H., Spadaccia, S., Hoeijmakers, H. J., Keller, C. U., Mulder, W., Pallichadath, V., Poch, O., Snik, F., et al. (2021) · Repository of the Academy's Library (Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2106.00493 · Cited by 3
Observability of ultraviolet Ni lines in the atmosphere of transiting Earth‐like planets
Young, M. E., Fossati, L., Johnstone, C., Salz, M., Lichtenegger, H., France, K., Lammer, H., & Cubillos, P. E. (2020) · Astronomische Nachrichten · doi:10.1002/asna.202013842 · Cited by 3
“…not ensure the presence of life, as large amounts of oxygen can also be produced abiotically (e.g. Harman, Schwieterman, Schottelkotte, & Kasting, 2015; Schindler & Kasting, 2000; E. W. Schwieterman et al., 2016; Segura, Meadows, Kasting, Crisp, & Cohen, 2007; Selsis, Despois, & Parisot, 2002).”
Surface and Temporal Biosignatures
Schwieterman, E. W. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-30648-3_69-1 · Cited by 3
Self-citationObserving Exoplanets with the James Webb Space Telescope
Beichman, C., & Greene, T. P. (2017) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-30648-3_85-1 · Cited by 3
“Schwieterman et al. (2016) have shown that even the strongest near-IR spectral features of an Earth-like planet with an M dwarf host will have amplitudes of under ∼ 10 ppm in transmission.”
BackgroundThe Super-Earth Opportunity - Search for Habitable Exoplanets in the 2020sPreprint
Hu, R., Beichman, C., Brain, D. A., Chen, P., Damiano, M., Dawson, R. I., Friedson, A. J., Hasagawa, Y., Howard, A. W., Johnson, R. A., et al. (2019) · arXiv (Cornell University) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1903.05258 · Cited by 4
“Previous studies of exoplanet habitability have focused on Earth-sized planets, drawing extensive analogy to Earth (e.g., Kasting et al. 1993, 2014; Kaltenegger et al. 2010; Robinson et al. 2011; Kopparapu et al. 2013; Misra et al. 2014; Schwieterman et al. 2016).”
BackgroundDeitrick, R., Goldblatt, C., Wolf, E. T., & Robinson, T. D. (2025) · The Planetary Science Journal · doi:10.3847/psj/ad9900 · Cited by 2
Metadata
- Authors
- Schwieterman, E. W., Meadows, V. S., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., Deming, D., Arney, G. N., Luger, R., Harman, C. E., Misra, A., & Barnes, R.
- Affiliations
- NASA Astrobiology Institute (US)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal Letters
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2016-02-25
- Volume
- 819
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- L13
- ISSN
- 2041-8205 (ISSN-L)
- 2041-8213
- PMC
- PMC6108182
- OpenAlex
- W2279598166
- Cited by
- 111
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 11
- FWCI
- 11.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Astrophysical Journal Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNA13AA93A, NNH12ZDA002C)
- University of Washington
- NASA Astrobiology Institute (NNH12ZDA002C, NNA13AA93A)
- Astrophysics Division
- 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 › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Space and Planetary Science › Planetary Science and Exploration
- Keywords
- ozone, carbon monoxide, CO2 photolysis, runaway greenhouse, hydrogen escape, transmission spectroscopy, James Webb Space Telescope, terrestrial exoplanets, M dwarfs, false positives, reflectance spectroscopy, direct imaging, LUVOIR, HabEx
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