New method to detect oxygen on exoplanets 'could speed up search for extraterrestrial life'

A conceptual image issued by NASA of water-bearing (left) exoplanets with oxygen-rich atmospheres.
PA
Jacob Jarvis6 January 2020

Scientists have developed a new method for detecting oxygen on far-flung planets which could speed up the search for extraterrestrial life.

The technique will see researchers use Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope to examine exoplanets to detect a strong signal that oxygen molecules produce when they collide.

This signal could help scientists distinguish between living and non-living planets outside of our solar system.

Thomas Fauchez, of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre, and lead author of the study, said: “Before our work, oxygen at similar levels as on Earth was thought to be undetectable with Webb.

“This oxygen signal is known since the early 1980s from Earth’s atmospheric studies but has never been studied for exoplanet research.”

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University of California Riverside astrobiologist Edward Schwieterman originally proposed a similar way of detecting high concentrations of oxygen from nonliving processes.

He was a member of the team that developed this technique.

Dr Schwieterman said: “Oxygen is one of the most exciting molecules to detect because of its link with life, but we don’t know if life is the only cause of oxygen in an atmosphere.

“This technique will allow us to find oxygen in planets both living and dead.”

When oxygen molecules collide they block parts of the infrared light spectrum from being seen by a telescope.

The scientists say that by examining patterns in that light, they can determine the composition of the planet’s atmosphere. Though they state that an abundance of oxygen on an exoplanet may not necessarily mean abundant life.

Their work has been published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Reporting by PA.

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