Air breathed by dinosaurs may provide clues to exoplanets

Although life on Earth may not have seemed easy for dinosaurs, it is precisely the conditions of the planet’s atmosphere of that period, called the Phanerozoic Eon, that have been used by astronomers in recent research. as a model for finding life on rocky exoplanets.

The study, published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, claims the “fingerprint of light” is the conditions that allowed life to emerge here. This could be the missing piece in our search for signs of life on planets orbiting other star systems.

Using predictions from two established climate models (called GEOCARB and COPSE), researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, US, simulated the composition of Earth’s atmosphere over the last 540 million years of evolution. Their hypothesis is that telescopes will be easier to detect potential chemical signatures of life. Pharenozoic Earth-like exoplanets.

How do Earth’s “light fingerprints” work?

The so-called fingerprints or light signatures of planets are the transmission spectra produced. When the local atmosphere absorbs certain colors of light from the host star while allowing other colors to pass through. In the Earth case, the two main pairs of biological signatures (oxygen and methane, and ozone and methane) were strongest in Earth models about 100-300 million years ago, when oxygen was more abundant.

“The light fingerprint of modern Earth has been our model for identifying potentially habitable planets, but there was a time when this digital fingerprint even existed,” study co-author Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute (CSI), explains in a statement. more obvious; “It’s better for showing signs of life.”

The expectation is that expanding the spectrum range could facilitate the search for signs of life on exoplanets. “even with a broad and complex life”emphasizes the Cornell astronomy professor.

Using Earth’s evolutionary models to search for life in the cosmos

Kaltenegger has been working on evolutionary models of the Earth for distant observers since 2020. His observations focus on what he calls geological, climatic and atmospheric changes over time. “basic truth” Capable of detecting evidence of life on other planets like ours.

The researcher thinks that there is a possibility of examining the atmospheres of the 35 rocky exoplanets discovered so far in habitable zones using the James Webb Space Telescope. But, Scientists need to know what they’re looking for and in this sense, digital signatures of the Pharynozoic Earth may be more promising.

This is if observers detect A supposedly habitable exoplanet with 30% oxygenLife there may have transcended the microbial stage and included creatures such as megalosaurs or microraptors.

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