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The search for habitable planets with biosignature gases framed by a ‘Biosignature Drake Equation’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2017

Sara Seager
Sara Seager*
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 54-1718 77 Mass. Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA
*
e-mail: seager@mit.edu
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Abstract

The discovery of thousands of exoplanets in the last two decades has uncovered a wide diversity of planets that are very different from those in our own Solar System. Ideas for how to detect signs of life in the variety of planetary possibilities, by way of biosignature gases, are expanding, although they largely remain grounded in study of familiar gases produced by life on Earth and how they appear in Earth's spectrum as viewed as an exoplanet. What are the chances we will be able to observe and identify biosignature gases on exoplanets in the coming two decades? I review the status of the search for habitable planets and biosignature gases framed by a ‘Biosignature Drake Equation’.

Keywords

astrobiologyatmospheresbiosignature gasesexoplanets
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , October 2018 , pp. 294 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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