James Webb Space Telescope Looking for Signs of Life in the Universe
Channel: iMaven Astronomy Academy
Date: 2023-09-28

JWST is uniquely equipped to search for life on other planets. It can detect very faint signals from distant objects, and it is also sensitive to infrared light, which can penetrate through dust and gas. This means that JWST can look at exoplanets in unprecedented detail and search for signs of life in their atmospheres.
One of the most promising ways to search for life on exoplanets is to look for biosignatures, which are molecules or other signs that could indicate the presence of life. Some potential biosignatures include oxygen, water vapor, methane, and carbon dioxide. JWST can detect all of these molecules in the atmospheres of exoplanets.
JWST is also able to measure the temperature and composition of exoplanets' atmospheres. This information can be used to identify exoplanets that are most likely to be habitable. For example, JWST can look for exoplanets that have the right temperature and atmosphere to support liquid water, which is considered to be essential for life as we know it.
#AlienLife #JWST #astrobiology 

References::
► Schwieterman et al., 2018, Exoplanet Biosignatures: A Review of Remotely Detectable Signs of Life, Astrobiology, 18, 6: https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.05791
► Kozakis et al. 2022, Is ozone a reliable proxy for molecular oxygen? I. The O2-O3 relationship for Earth-like atmospheres, A&A, 665, 156: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.09415
► Leung et al. 2022, Alternative Methylated Biosignatures I: Methyl Bromide, A Capstone Biosignature, ApJ, 938, 6: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.07393
► Lin et al. 2021, Differentiating Modern and Prebiotic Earth Scenarios for TRAPPIST-1e: High-resolution Transmission Spectra and Predictions for JWST, MNRAS, 505, 3562: https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.09319
► Fauchez et al. 2019, Impact of Clouds and Hazes on the Simulated JWST Transmission Spectra of Habitable Zone Planets in the TRAPPIST-1 System, ApJ, 887, 194: https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.08596
► Kaltenegger et al. 2020, The White Dwarf Opportunity: Robust Detections of Molecules in Earth-like Exoplanet Atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope, ApJ, 901, 1: https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.07274
► Limbach et al. 2022, A New Method for Finding Nearby White Dwarf Exoplanets and Detecting Biosignatures, MNRAS, 517, 2622: https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.12914

::Music::
Music licensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via Creative Commons (CC) Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., or with permission from the artist
► 00:00 Hill - All Flesh Is as the Grass [https://open.spotify.com/track/1WuMK4...]
► 03:57 & 14:59 Hill - The Great Alchemist [https://open.spotify.com/track/3PAx36...]
► 08:01 & 18:50 Outside the Sky - Trillions
► 11:57 Hill - We Are Unceasing Beings [https://open.spotify.com/track/3Tnhaw...]
► 25:18 Joachim Heinrich - Stjärna

::Chapters::
00:00 Introduction
01:00 A Biosignature Primer
11:00 Sponsorship
12:21 TRAPPIST-1e
19:12 White Dwarfs
25:29 A Fool's Hope
27:05 Outro and credits

#JWST #AlienLife #Astrobiology