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#astrobiology

21 posts18 participants0 posts today
Public
Mikko Tuomi

Proxima Centauri is our nearest stellar neighbor and is known to be a very active M dwarf #star.

Known to host a potentially #habitable #planet, the star #Proxima exhibits very active #flare activity in optical wavelengths.

Depending on the energy and frequency of these flares, nearby planets in the habitable zone might be rendered uninhabitable as the flares strip planetary atmospheres of necessary ingredients such as ozone and water.

#astronomy #astrobiology
phys.org/news/2025-03-small-st

Phys.org · Small star, mighty flares: ALMA shares new view of Proxima CentauriBy National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Public
SETI Institute

Early bird tickets for The #DrakeAwards2025 are available!

You’re cordially invited to join the SETI Institute on May 20, 2025, for an unforgettable evening celebrating scientific discovery, innovation, and the search for life beyond Earth. Connect with pioneering researchers in #SETI, #astrobiology, and #space #science, enjoy a gala dinner and awards ceremony, and engage with the brightest minds in the field.

Act now! The Early Bird sale ends in five days!

Tickets: eventbrite.com/e/drake-awards-

Scrollwork of the Drake Awards name and SETI Institute logo and design at the top and bottom. Background: Various planets. Text: #drakeawards2025, Early bird pricing currently available! When: May 20, 2025. Cocktail reception begins 5:30 p. Where: Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA and Online. Secure your ticket before March 31, 2025!
ALT
Public
Lukas VFN 🇪🇺

Fluorescent #caves could explain how life can be supported in extraterrestrial environments
phys.org/news/2025-03-fluoresc

"Typically, to understand the chemical makeup of a #cave, a sample is taken back to the lab. Sebree & team collect #fluorescence spectra on their expeditions... they take the information but leave the cave intact. Anna Van Der Weide is building a public inventory of fluorescence fingerprints... Jacqueline Heggen is exploring the caves as a simulated environment for #astrobiology"

A section of a cave seen under normal white light (left image) transforms into something otherworldly when placed under UV light (right image). Different sections of cave walls glow in bright greens and blues.
ALT
Public *
Mike Malaska

Long chain organic molecules found on Mars:
Decane, undecane, and dodecane

jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-curios

Why is this important? These may have come from fatty acids (C10:0, C11:0, and C12:0)

Long chain fatty acids could come from life, or be made abiotically.

What is key, in my opinion, is that the possible precursor fatty acids are longer than C8:0. So they could be used to build a biological cell membrane. (Shorter than this and they will diffuse out from a membrane bilayer.)

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)NASA’s Curiosity Rover Detects Largest Organic Molecules Found on MarsThe finding expands on the kinds of ancient molecules that can be preserved in the Martian surface.
#astrobiology
Public
Planetary Ecologist

Detecting Earth from distant star-based systems (Planetary science 🪐)

There are several methods currently used by astronomers to detect distant exoplanets from Earth. Theoretically, some of these methods can be used to detect Earth as an exoplanet from distant star systems.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detectin

#DetectingEarthFromDistantStarBasedSystems#Astrobiology#Exoplanetology
Public
Mikko Tuomi

Extremely Large Telescope should be able to gather spectra not just on #exoplanets that transit their #star, but also from non-transiting exoplanets via reflected starlight.

It should be possible to make clear and accurate distinctions for nearby star systems.

For the closest star, #Proxima Centauri, we could detect #life on an Earth-like world Proxima b with only 10 hours of observations.

#astronomy #astrobiology
phys.org/news/2025-03-extremel

Phys.org · Extremely Large Telescope could sense hints of life at Proxima Centauri in just 10 hours, simulations suggestBy Brian Koberlein
Public
Mikko Tuomi

The upcoming extremely large telescopes will provide the first opportunity to search for signs of #habitability and #life on non-transiting #terrestrial #exoplanets.

For the most accessible nearby target, #Proxima Centauri b, we may be able to rule out a sub-Neptune #atmosphere in as little as a single hour of observing, and some #biosignature disequilibrium pairs may be accessible in 10 hours.

#astronomy #astrobiology
arxiv.org/abs/2503.08592

arXiv.orgThere's more to life in reflected light: Simulating the detectability of a range of molecules for high-contrast, high-resolution observations of non-transiting terrestrial exoplanetsThe upcoming extremely large telescopes will provide the first opportunity to search for signs of habitability and life on non-transiting terrestrial exoplanets using high-contrast, high-resolution instrumentation. However, the suite of atmospheric gases in terrestrial exoplanet environments that are accessible to ground-based reflected light observations has not been thoroughly explored. In this work, we use an upgraded Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) detectability pipeline to simulate the detectability of gases that can serve as habitability markers, potential biosignatures, and false positive discriminants in the atmospheres of Earth-sized and sub-Neptune planets. We calculate molecular detectability for five photochemically self-consistent atmosphere types, including the modern and Archean Earth, uninhabited biosignature ``false positive'' environments, and a sub-Neptune, over a grid of observational configurations for non-transiting targets within 10pc of Earth. For the most accessible nearby target, Proxima Centauri b, our results suggest that we may be able to rule out a sub-Neptune atmosphere in as little as a single hour of observing, and two biosignature disequilibrium pairs (O$_2$/CH$_4$ and CO$_2$/CH$_4$) may be accessible in $\sim 10$ hours for the most optimistic scenario. It may also be possible to discriminate uninhabited worlds, and rule out biosignature false positives by identifying contextual indicators (CO and H$_2$O) of abiotic O$_2$ and/or CH$_4$ buildup on similar timescales. In the near term, ELT reflected light observations will likely allow us to characterize multiple nearby terrestrial atmospheres, and ultimately search for signs of habitability and life.
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