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SUMMARY:Invited talk: The Search for Signs of Life on Exoplanets
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220909T120000Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220909T124500Z
DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20241101T160828Z
UID:indico-contribution-152@meetings.aip.de
DESCRIPTION:Speakers: Vikki Meadows (University of Washington)\nThe search
  for signs of life on other worlds is an exciting and now key component of
  exoplanet science. In the exoplanet context\, biosignatures are potential
 ly-detectable impacts of life on a global planetary environment.   Biosign
 atures may include identified and sought after molecules in a planetary at
 mosphere\, reflectivity signals on its surface\, or the characteristic var
 iation of these or other characteristics as a function of time.  Biosignat
 ures may also be “agnostic”\, meaning that they are not associated wit
 h a known or postulated metabolism\, thereby allowing us to search for unk
 nown forms of life.  Agnostic biosignatures consist of anomalous patterns 
 or molecules that are unlikely to be generated by abiotic planetary proces
 sess.   All biosignatures\, and particularly agnostic biosignatures\, must
  be interpreted in the context of their planetary environment.  This conte
 xt can provide additional information to help rule out biosignature “fal
 se positives” where instead of being generated by life\, a sought after 
 environmental characteristic is instead generated by abiotic processes lik
 e volcanism and photochemistry. In the near-term\, the search for life on 
 exoplanets will focus exclusively on M dwarf exoplanets\, which\, due to t
 he coevolution with their star\, may undergo a very different evolutionary
  path than our own Earth. These searches will be undertaken using low-medi
 um resolution transmission spectroscopy with JWST\, and high-resolution tr
 ansmission and reflected light spectroscopy with ground-based telescopes. 
   In the longer term\, a large-aperture space-based telescope will use dir
 ect imaging techniques to obtain reflected light from planets orbiting a b
 roader swath of host stars\, including the more “Sun-like” FGK dwarfs.
  This will expand our search for life in the universe to planetary systems
  that are more analogous to our own.  In this talk I will introduce the fi
 eld of biosignatures\, and describe the potential capabilities for biosign
 ature searches using high-resolution spectroscopy with ground-based telesc
 opes\, placing these opportunities in the context of what might be possibl
 e with space-based telescopes over the next two decades.\n\nhttps://iaus37
 9.aip.de/event/16/contributions/152/
LOCATION:Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) Lecture Hall
URL:https://iaus379.aip.de/event/16/contributions/152/
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