Exoplanet Biosignatures: At the Dawn of a New Era of Planetary Observations

Abstract

The rapid rate of discoveries of exoplanets has expanded the scope of the science possible for the remote detection of life beyond Earth. The Exoplanet Biosignatures Workshop Without Walls (EBWWW) held in 2016 engaged the international scientific community across diverse scientific disciplines, to assess the state of the science and technology in the search for life on exoplanets, and to identify paths for progress. The workshop activities resulted in five major review papers, which provide (1) an encyclopedic review of known and proposed biosignatures and models used to ascertain them (Schwieterman et al., 2018 in this issue); (2) an in-depth review of O₂ as a biosignature, rigorously examining the nuances of false positives and false negatives for evidence of life (Meadows et al., 2018 in this issue); (3) a Bayesian framework to comprehensively organize current understanding to quantify confidence in biosignature assessments (Catling et al., 2018 in this issue); (4) an extension of that Bayesian framework in anticipation of increasing planetary data and novel concepts of biosignatures (Walker et al., 2018 in this issue); and (5) a review of the upcoming telescope capabilities to characterize exoplanets and their environment (Fujii et al., 2018 in this issue). Because of the immense content of these review papers, this summary provides a guide to their complementary scope and highlights salient features. Strong themes that emerged from the workshop were that biosignatures must be interpreted in the context of their environment, and that frameworks must be developed to link diverse forms of scientific understanding of that context to quantify the likelihood that a biosignature has been observed. Models are needed to explore the parameter space where measurements will be widespread but sparse in detail. Given the technological prospects for large ground-based telescopes and space-based observatories, the detection of atmospheric signatures of a few potentially habitable planets may come before 2030. Key Words: Exoplanets-Biosignatures-Remote observation-Spectral imaging-Bayesian analysis. Astrobiology 18, 619-626.

FIG. 1.

An overview of the past, present, and future of research on remotely detectable biosignatures. Research historically has focused on cataloguing lists of substances or physical features that yield spectral signatures as indicators of potential life on exoplanets. Recent progress has led to an understanding of how environmental context is critical to interpret signatures of nonliving planets that may mimic some effects of biota. Exoplanet observing telescopes in the near future hold promise to provide direct spectral imaging that can chemically characterize rocky planets in the habitable zone of their parent star. Anticipating these capabilities, the field should seek to develop frameworks to utilize widespread but sparse data to deliver quantitative assessments of whether or not a given planet has life. (Credit: Aaron Gronstal)

FIG. 2.

A Bayesian framework, applied to the detection of life on extrasolar planets. Equation from Catling et al. ( in this issue). Adapted from Walker et al. ( in this issue).