Cornell University | 2019 Dec 05
A Cornell senior has come up with a way to discern life on exoplanets loitering in other cosmic neighborhoods: a spectral field guide.
Zifan Lin ’20 has developed high-resolution spectral models and scenarios for two exoplanets that may harbor life: Proxima b, in the habitable zone of our nearest neighbor Proxima Centauri; and Trappist-1e, one of three possible Earth-like exoplanet candidates in the Trappist-1 system. ...
“In order to investigate whether there are signs of life on other worlds, it is very important to understand signs of life that show in a planet’s light fingerprint,” Lin said. “Life on exoplanets can produce a characteristic combination of molecules in its atmosphere – and those become telltale signs in the spectra of such planets.
“In the near future we will be seeing the atmosphere of these worlds with new, sophisticated ground-based telescopes, which will allow us to explore the exoplanet’s climate and might spot its biota,” he said. ...
High-Resolution Reflection Spectra for Proxima b and Trappist-1e Models for ELT Observations ~ Zifan Lin, Lisa Kaltenegger
- Monthly Notices of the RAS 491(2):2845 (Jan 2020) DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz3213
- arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1912.02132 > 04 Dec 2019