Earth as an Exoplanet: Using Remote Sensing Data to Find Habitable Worlds

A potential future space mission known as the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE) could study terrestrial worlds in their stars' habitable zones (where water can be liquid) using spectral emissions in the mid-infrared. With only one known example of a world with life - Earth - scientists recently examined whether or not such a mission could determine if a planet was habitable. Published in The Astrophysical Journal, the results of a recent study concluded that yes, LIFE could find "signatures of crucial atmospheric species and [detect] the planet's temperate climate as well as surface conditions allowing for liquid water."

Co-author Björn S. Konrad joins senior planetary astronomer Franck Marchis from ETH Zurich for an engaging SETI Live on how they used remote sensing data to draw their conclusions and what the results mean for the search for life beyond Earth. (Recorded 4 April 2024.)

Press release: https://www.phys.ethz.ch/news-and-events/d-phys-news/2024/02/if-earth-were-an-exoplanet.html

Paper: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ad198b