Dr. Delia Santiago-Materese wants things to get complex

From terrestrial animals to experiments in microgravity and Martian clouds, this NASA program scientist’s career path links diverse challenges. Today, she supports a mission to Saturn’s moon Titan, a world teeming with organic molecules that could hold valuable clues about the origin of life.

When novelty is your hobby, you already have a large part of the recipe for a career full of challenges. That is why Dr. Delia Santiago-Materese describes her path within NASA as “meandering.” Her diverse roles have taken her to low Earth orbit, to the clouds of Mars, and to the surroundings of Jupiter. Now, they are also bringing her closer to the surface of Titan, an intriguing moon of Saturn. Woven together by her exploring spirit and a perennial curiosity, all these experiences have one point in common: life.

Today, Santiago-Materese is part of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The main decoration in her office is a model of Jupiter, larger than a basketball, resting next to a scale model of the spacecraft exploring it, Juno. Small black and red pins with the inscription “Dragonfly” rest in the center of a round table. Several framed diplomas cover a wall. From here, Santiago-Materese does “a little bit of everything” on any given workday as a program scientist for the Juno and Dragonfly missions, and for the Discovery program, which features a portfolio of several missions in our cosmic neighborhood.

This medley of roles is no coincidence. Santiago-Materese describes herself as someone who does not pursue a single goal, but rather diverse interests that she discovers along the way. “I am always looking for something new to add to my experiences,” she says, “because I think I also get bored easily.”

The daughter of a military family, Santiago-Materese was born in Spain by coincidence. Her roots are actually on another continent: her mother is Mexican-American and her father is Puerto Rican. From her time in Spain, she only keeps some baby photos; she lived part of her life in Texas and then in California, which she considers her home—despite having spent her childhood summers in San Sebastián, Puerto Rico. It was in the Golden State where she first imagined herself as a veterinarian and decided to study Biological Sciences. And it was during her studies at Stanford University, “just around the corner” from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, that Santiago-Materese discovered astrobiology.

This elective course brought her closer to a discipline that, to some extent, was in its infancy. Today, NASA’s Astrobiology Program investigates life in the universe on many levels: how it began, how it evolved here on Earth, and where it might exist elsewhere. And that was how Santiago-Materese realized that biology and space were not two isolated things, she recounts.

Rodents, Insects, and Martian Clouds

After finishing her studies, Santiago-Materese completed a one-year internship at the San Francisco Zoo. But the unknown that astrobiology presents continued to intrigue her, so she went back to one of her professors to inquire more about it. She asked around and found someone at Lockheed Martin, a company that often contracts with NASA on space projects. They were looking for people for a new project studying the nutrition of the food bars for rodents traveling to space aboard the space shuttle.

Santiago-Materese has applied that formula ever since: identifying what truly interests her and finding the right person to ask questions. If people “don’t know what you’re interested in, they can’t help you,” she explains. After experience with the Space Shuttle Program, including managing databases for science payloads aboard the space shuttle, she went on to work with the International Space Station, which was then beginning its legacy of over 25 years in Earth orbit. She supported the development of biological experiments in microgravity, this time with fruit flies. But Santiago-Materese wanted to keep moving farther from Earth and investigate future space destinations.

This curiosity led her to the Martian sky. As part of her graduate studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Santiago-Materese investigated the Martian atmosphere, focusing on ice in the clouds and the development of climate models for the Red Planet. She earned her master’s degree and would later return to complete her doctorate under the NASA Pathways program, which is one of the agency’s primary early-career hiring pathways. She would defend her thesis six months after giving birth to her first daughter (one of the achievements she is most proud of, she says). That is why, although she loves the “weird” planets of the outer solar system, she is “more of a Mars person,” by training.

At NASA Ames, Santiago-Materese held various roles, ranging from social media and open science to lunar sciences. She then became a program officer for the Solar System Workings program in the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters as part of a detail, or temporary assignment. And then, she took off for Maryland along with her family.

Enabling Science

Santiago-Materese sums up her current role as a program scientist as the “science liaison” between NASA Headquarters and a mission. “When you do program scientist work, you might not be specialized or an expert in the exact science, but you need to be able to understand it and talk about it, to understand its importance,” she explains. “In general, we are supporting other people so they can do science.” In this endeavor, being someone who “gets more energy from working with people” is useful… and necessary: “You are having conversations all day long” with colleagues from different disciplines— from science and engineering to finance.

The Juno mission, in orbit around Jupiter since 2016, and Dragonfly, which is scheduled to launch no earlier than July 2028, are part of NASA’s New Frontiers program. Santiago-Materese also oversees the array of missions in the Discovery program, which includes ongoing science missions like Psyche and Lucy—heading to different asteroids—and future missions to Venus.

For Santiago-Materese, sharing her unconventional path can be valuable for students and youth in general, especially those who are unsure of what they want to do. “Your dream job,” she says, “you might not know it exists, or maybe it doesn’t exist today.” Beyond that, this zigzagging path has led her to accumulate experiences and relationships with different people, which she treasures even as she sets off for her next destination.

An Alien World

About two years out from Dragonfly’s launch, it is no surprise that this robotic mission takes up much of Santiago-Materese’s time. “Dragonfly feels like a combination of all my different experiences over time,” she reflects. And it signifies, to some extent, a return to her roots: it is an astrobiology mission. Although not designed to detect life, Dragonfly will investigate prebiotic chemistry: the chemical processes that could have led to the emergence of life on Earth.

Dragonfly will embark on a journey of about six years to the surface of Titan. The spacecraft will carry an array of science instruments and will be the first NASA science mission to explore another world by flying from location to location. This car-sized rotorcraft will touch down at various geological sites of interest to analyze the moon’s composition and its habitability potential.

When it arrives at Titan, it will encounter a landscape that is strange and familiar at the same time: it could be a window into Earth’s remote past. This frozen world has a thick atmosphere and clouds drifting across the sky; dunes, lakes, rivers, canyons and mountains. Titan even has a process equivalent to our water cycle. However, on Titan, it is not water that flows but hydrocarbons, primarily methane and ethane. “It’s a more methane-based chemistry, so it is very alien, and that is what I really love about Titan,” says Santiago-Materese. And on this moon, organic molecules abound.

These molecules contain carbon and are used by all known forms of life. They are fundamental to understanding the origin of life, as they can be produced by both biological and non-biological processes. On Titan, these organic molecules fall to the surface and form dense deposits over its bedrock of water ice. Scientists believe that the complex chemistry precursor to life could be triggered there if provided with a little liquid water, such as that generated by an asteroid impact.

Santiago-Materese is especially excited about what the Dragonfly Mass Spectrometer (DraMS) instrument will help discover. DraMS, designed and built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will analyze samples from Titan’s surface. “The more complex things get, the more interesting things happen,” she says. “So I’m curious: just how complex do the molecules get? Will we find any interesting patterns?”

But in science, every time you ask a question, a new one arises. Dragonfly will try to answer several of them. “When you have a planet with complex chemistry but not life, what happens? What is there before life?” the program scientist wonders.

Titan, a valuable natural laboratory, “is going to completely change our understanding of what another world can be like,” she anticipates. In addition to what the scientific community expects to discover thanks to Dragonfly, Santiago-Materese is interested in the potential unexpected findings. “There are very defined science goals, but a lot of it is exploratory work,” she explains. “It is kind of nice to know that there is a big range [of possibilities], that we could be very surprised.”

By Noelia González, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland

Lee esta historia en español aquí.

The post Dr. Delia Santiago-Materese appeared first on NASA Science.

A cubic meter of lunar soil might be one of our best bets for finding physical proof that another advanced civilization once existed somewhere in the Milky Way, according to a new paper to be published in the International Journal of Astrobiology.

The post Could Scoop of Moon Dust Reveal Alien Technology? appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A provocative new paper suggests consciousness may not be unique to Earth and could arise in alien life forms far stranger than we can imagine. A new philosophical paper argues that consciousness may not be exclusive to life as we know it. According to Eric Schwitzgebel, a distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of [...]

Researchers want to explore the idea that microscopic particles shed by alien civilizations have accumulated on the lunar surface, making it an archive of extraterrestrial technology.

One of the biggest challenges in the search for alien life is that Earth remains the only example of life we know. As a result, nearly every attempt to identify biology elsewhere starts, at least partly, by looking for chemistry that resembles life here.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow are exploring a different strategy. Rather than asking whether an alien molecule looks biological by Earth standards, they propose asking a more fundamental question: How difficult was that molecule to make?

In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers demonstrate a method that combines mass spectrometry with machine learning to estimate what researchers call “molecular assembly,” or MA.

The concept comes from Assembly Theory, which attempts to quantify molecular complexity by identifying the minimum number of construction steps needed to build a molecule. Researchers argue that when highly complex molecules appear repeatedly and in abundance, their existence may point to a process that is consistently steering chemistry down particular pathways.

That could make molecular assembly useful as an “agnostic” biosignature—one that does not depend on alien life sharing Earth’s chemistry.

“There is a growing interest in ‘agnostic’ life detection strategies: methods that can identify molecular signs of life without needing an exact understanding of what that life might look like, or how it might interact with a complex, poorly characterized environment,” the researchers write. “The measured assembly index, defined as the number of steps along the shortest construction pathway, is fixed for each molecule and does not depend on external conditions, such as the environment in which the molecule might be detected or the specific ‘alien’ biochemistry from which it might arise.”

The researchers’ proposed “agnostic” approach could become increasingly important as scientists encounter tantalizing, but often ambiguous, chemical signals in the search for alien life.

Methane on Mars, phosphine reported in Venus’s atmosphere, and dimethyl sulfide proposed as a possible biosignature within exoplanet atmospheres have all attracted attention because living organisms can produce those compounds.

However, biology is not the only way to make them. Methane, for example, can emerge from geologic processes. Dimethyl sulfide is strongly associated with life on Earth, yet it has also been detected in cometary material and produced in laboratory experiments simulating primordial chemistry.

The presence of a particular molecule, in other words, does not necessarily tell scientists what produced it. Molecular assembly approaches the problem from a different angle. Under Assembly Theory, researchers calculate the shortest possible pathway for constructing a molecule from simpler building blocks. A molecule with an MA of 40, for example, has a shortest construction pathway twice as long as one with an MA of 20.

The reasoning is rooted in probability. Undirected chemistry has an enormous range of possible molecular structures. As molecules become more complex, the odds of repeatedly producing the same highly elaborate structure shrink unless something constrains the process.

Biological systems store and use information to direct chemical reactions toward particular outcomes, permitting organisms to manufacture the same complicated molecules again and again instead of wandering randomly through the immense space of possible chemistry.

Previous experiments cited in the study found an approximate dividing line between abiotic and biological samples at an assembly index of around 15.

Perhaps more importantly, in the search for alien life, scientists would not necessarily need to know what a molecule is before recognizing that it is unusually complex.

That could be especially useful on worlds such as Mars, Europa, Enceladus, or Titan, where spacecraft may encounter compounds unlike anything commonly found on Earth.

Several proposed planetary missions use, or could use, mass spectrometers. These instruments analyze molecules by measuring ions’ mass-to-charge ratios.

More sophisticated multistage mass spectrometers can repeatedly break molecules apart, giving indications of their structure and assembly history. But spacecraft operate under severe limits on power, mass, computing capacity, and instrument complexity. Many planetary missions, therefore, rely on simpler, single-stage mass spectrometry.

To close that gap, the researchers trained an XGBoost model on standardized mass spectra from the National Institute of Standards and Technology Chemistry WebBook. The model learned to estimate molecular assembly directly from single-stage spectra.

According to the study, it reduced relative mean squared error threefold compared with the best-performing baseline model, cutting the figure from 0.12 to 0.04.

The model also tended to underestimate molecules with especially high MA values. For a life-detection system, that bias could be preferable. It means the model was more likely to be conservative than to classify a molecule as an unusually strong biosignature mistakenly.

Researchers envision future spacecraft using this kind of analysis autonomously. A rover or lander that detects molecules with unusually high assembly scores might flag the surrounding area for closer inspection, prioritize certain samples, or identify material worth returning to Earth.

The study explicitly evaluated conditions designed to resemble instruments proposed for missions to Titan and Europa.

The same framework also raised another, more speculative possibility: when the researchers compared very large molecular databases, they identified several medical compounds with unusually high MA values. Their complexity was not the product of biology alone, but of deliberate human synthesis.

That led the team to suggest that particularly complex artificial molecules might serve as “molecular technosignatures”—chemical evidence oftechnology, rather than life itself.

For now, however, the method remains far from being a ready-to-fly alien-life detector. Instrument settings strongly affected performance. In simulated experiments, changing impact energies could nearly double prediction error, while one comparison increased it by more than 2.3 times. Molecules that break apart unusually easily can also cause the model to overestimate assembly, while molecules that resist fragmentation may be underestimated.

The researchers therefore describe the study as a proof of concept. Turning the approach into an effective tool for planetary investigation would require standardized databases, careful instrument calibration, and chromatographic separation to isolate individual molecules before analysis.

Future versions could also combine mass spectrometry with other techniques, including nuclear magnetic resonance or infrared spectroscopy. Infrared measurements, the researchers suggest, extend aspects of the approach to the remote study of exoplanet atmospheres.

Yet the wider goal is significant. Instead of deciding beforehand what alien biology should produce, scientists could search for evidence that a process has persistently directed chemistry toward highly specific, complex outcomes.

“In this work, we presented a proof-of-concept demonstrating the potential use of ML to predict the MA molecular complexity as a biosignature from in situ mass spectrometers during future space missions,” the researchers write. “Although the application of ML in life detection remains a nascent endeavor, it holds significant promise.”

The recent study, “Molecular Assembly as a Universal Biosignature Measurable by Mass Spectrometry,” appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter: @LtTimMcMillan.  Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email: LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com 

For decades, astronomers have assumed that the Martian surface froze solid around 3 billion years ago and has stayed that way ever since. If this were really the case, any liquid water would have long since either been locked away underground or lost to space.

The economist John Maynard Keynes once remarked, “In the long run we are all dead.” From an astronomical standpoint, this is true for the Earth itself. In roughly 5 billion years, the Sun will exhaust the hydrogen at its core and enter the next phase of its life as a Red Giant, where it will swell up large enough to engulf and destroy the Earth.

Currently, the Sun is still in its main-sequence phase, where it fuses hydrogen into helium in its core. Although it remains relatively stable during this phase, it will gradually grow brighter with time. As the Sun shines brighter, the increased heat and radiation will raise Earth’s surface temperature, potentially pushing it past the threshold for life to survive. 

One of Earth’s geological processes that helps regulate its surface temperature is the carbon cycle. Over millions of years, carbon moves from the Earth’s interior into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide or CO₂, where it functions as a greenhouse gas that traps heat. Plants take in this CO₂ through photosynthesis and move carbon through the biosphere. 

Meanwhile, rain and rock weathering draw carbon into the oceans and rocks. By pulling CO₂ out of the atmosphere, the carbon cycle could mitigate Earth’s warming as the Sun brightens over time. Today, human activities are increasing atmospheric CO₂ and warming the planet. However, over billions of years, the carbon cycle could gradually remove enough CO₂ from the atmosphere that eventually too little would remain to support photosynthesis. 

With these challenges to life on Earth in mind, the researchers Jacob Haqq‐Misra and Eric Wolf investigated how long Earth’s biosphere could last in the distant future. The team used computer models to calculate the balance of energy that Earth would receive and emit over time, accounting for the effects of increasing sunlight and changing atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. They followed this up with calculations using the ExoCAM model to determine the temperature and atmospheric conditions of future Earth across different latitudes. They related these conditions to a habitability metric to determine their impact on the biosphere.

To estimate the biosphere’s maximum possible lifespan, the team conducted 29 simulations representing the planet’s conditions over the next 2 billion years. In one set of simulations, the Earth’s carbon cycle contributed little to regulating surface temperature, with the atmosphere’s CO₂ concentration fixed at approximately modern levels of 400 parts per million (ppm) and surface temperatures continuing to increase. In another, the carbon cycle worked to keep Earth’s average surface temperature fixed at the modern average of approximately 59℉ (15℃), no matter how much it had to reduce CO₂ in the atmosphere. 

In the scenario with a fixed CO₂ concentration, the team found that in 1.7 billion years, Earth’s surface reached an average of 122°F (50°C), which is too hot for most land plants. After 1.9 billion years, it reached 149°F (65°), becoming too hot for all land plants to survive as temperatures continued to rise. 

They also found that in the fixed average surface temperature scenario, atmospheric CO₂ dropped below the 150 ppm level that most plants require for photosynthesis within 500 million years. After 1.4 billion years, CO₂ levels fell below 10 ppm, leaving only a few land photosynthesizers and aquatic plants alive. After about 1.8 billion years, atmospheric CO₂ dropped to 1 ppm, leaving only microbes capable of photosynthesis.

The researchers’ findings generally extend the estimated lifetime of Earth’s future biosphere compared with earlier, simpler models that suggested maximum lifespans of 100 million to 1.5 billion years. However, they clarified that other scientists should verify their results by running tests with other models, especially under extreme conditions of high incoming solar radiation and low atmospheric CO₂. 

Lastly, Haqq‐Misra and Wolf noted that their model did not account for major evolutionary changes that could help life adapt to future conditions. Over time, plants could evolve to tolerate higher temperatures or lower atmospheric CO₂ levels. Future humans or another intelligent species might also engage in large-scale geoengineering projects to prevent the end of life on Earth. If life on Earth proves adaptable enough, the biosphere may endure until a Red Giant fills the daytime sky.

The post The long-term fate of Earth’s biosphere appeared first on Sciworthy.

A £3 million investment could help secure a leading UK role in NASA’s future search for life on nearby planets. An Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star would appear as little more than a dim point beside a light source 10 billion times brighter. British astronomers are preparing technology that could help NASA separate that [...]

We know Mars has water ice in its polar regions, but astronauts (and their solar-powered equipment!) would much rather experience life closer to Mars' equator. As NASA looks toward landing humans on the red planet, the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) is mapping where water should and shouldn't be found and using statistics to quantify its certainty. Two new papers, led by PSI's Hanna Sizemore and Samuel Courville, highlight new global maps of subsurface water ice and identify the missions and tools needed to increase the certainty of the maps.

Europa, one of Jupiter's icy moons, has long fascinated scientists because of what may lie beneath its frozen shell: a global ocean of liquid water. That hidden ocean has made Europa one of the most compelling places in the solar system to study the conditions that might support life. But new research led by Rutgers scientist Lujendra Ojha suggests one of the most promising shortcuts to Europa's ocean may be far more complicated than previously thought.

Researchers have detected a sugar in the interstellar medium for the first time. Sugars are central to life. They help form the structural backbone of DNA and RNA and participate in essential metabolic reactions. They are also thought to have been necessary for the formation of the earliest nucleic acids. Yet researchers studying life’s origins [...]

Scientists have painted the most detailed portrait yet of the planetary system orbiting Barnard's Star—the sun's closest neighbor after Alpha Centauri, just under six light-years from Earth.

The discovery hints that life’s ingredients may form before planets exist.

The discovery of all five nucleobases on Ryugu strengthens the idea that life’s molecular ingredients formed in space before reaching Earth. A new study reports that samples from the asteroid Ryugu contain all five fundamental nucleobases, the molecular “letters” of life. Tiny asteroid grains can preserve chemical clues about the ingredients that may have helped [...]

University of California, Riverside’s Professor Eric Schwitzgebel and University of Lisbon postdoctoral researcher Jeremy Pober argue that consciousness is substrate flexible, meaning it can arise not just in the biological tissue we find on Earth, but potentially in radically different physical materials found elsewhere in the cosmos.

The post Consciousness is Not Exclusive to Earth’s Biology, Philosophers Argue appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

It’s a bit worrying when a scientific paper begins, “How long will life on Earth survive?” But in this case—a study by Jacob Haqq‐Misra of Blue Marble Space and Eric Wolf at the University of Colorado Boulder—the billion-plus-year timeline under consideration shouldn’t cause you too much existential panic.

The context for this question is that we understand the Sun will brighten as it eventually matures into a red giant that swallows the Earth in a solar furnace. So, where along that 5 billion-year path will life on Earth, in fact, be cooked?

Weathering and the weather

This isn’t just a question of incoming radiation. Among the thermostat-like stabilizing feedback loops in Earth’s climate, the cycling of CO₂ through the solid Earth is a major factor over timescales this long. The weathering of silicate rocks at the surface converts atmospheric CO₂ into carbonate that ends up on the seafloor, where it can be subducted into the mantle with tectonic plates. (And eventually, it can cycle back out to the atmosphere through volcanoes.)

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Ancient asteroid impacts may have done more than reshape Earth’s surface. For decades, asteroid impacts have been viewed mainly as agents of destruction. But on the young Earth, they may have done something far more surprising: helped create some of the planet’s first habitable environments. A new study from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) suggests that [...]

Editor’s Note: Astrobites is a graduate-student-run organization that digests astrophysical literature for undergraduate students. As part of the partnership between the AAS and astrobites, we occasionally repost astrobites content here at AAS Nova. We hope you enjoy this post from astrobites; the original can be viewed at astrobites.org.

Title: Retrieving the Red Edge on Earth-Like Planets with Heterogeneous Clouds and Surfaces
Authors: Zachary Burr et al.
First Author’s Institution: Jet Propulsion Laboratory; ETH Zurich
Status: Published in ApJ

In the next 25 years, astronomers could find signs of life on other planets with the launch of the Habitable Worlds Observatory. Atmospheric signs of life, known as atmospheric biosignatures, are how astronomers currently search for life on other planets. Figure 1 shows examples of atmospheric biosignatures with pictures of each chemical’s origin on Earth. Before E.T. can phone home, though, we have to understand what chemicals make up a planet’s atmosphere. To do this, astronomers can use spectroscopy to observe a planet’s atmosphere in different wavelengths and measure the types and quantities of chemicals present.

There are many ways to observe the spectrum of a planet, but the one you’re probably most familiar with is transmission spectroscopy. You can learn more about transmission spectroscopy of exoplanet atmospheres and how to model transmission spectra with these bites: 1, 2, 3. However, all of the current techniques for exoplanet spectroscopy (including transmission spectroscopy) measure the star’s light and how the planet affects the star’s light. This means it’s heavily dependent on how we model the star’s light to indirectly observe the planet’s light. The only way to take the spectrum of a planet directly is with direct imaging: the technique that the future Habitable Worlds Observatory will use to find signs of life in planetary spectra.

But are atmospheric biosignatures the only way to tell if life exists on other planets? Short answer: absolutely not. Let’s take Earth as an example. If we imagine Earth as a directly imaged exoplanet and take spectra of the light it reflects, you’ll find that around near-infrared wavelengths (~700 nanometers or just past the red part of the visible light spectrum), the light reflected off of Earth increases sharply. This sharp increase is called the vegetation red edge and is caused by plant and ocean life on Earth’s surface as shown in Figure 2. This is made possible because chlorophyll (the thing that makes plants green) absorbs nearly all visible light but reflects near-infrared light. The vegetation red edge is an example of a surface biosignature. In today’s article, the authors determine if the vegetation red edge will be visible in spectra of Earth-like exoplanets!

Snapshots

Planets rotate; that’s how we have morning, noon, and night in 24 hours guaranteed. This means that different parts of the surface will be visible at different times when we take spectra. Sometimes, we may see more ocean than land, other times not. To determine if the vegetation red edge would be visible at all points in Earth’s day, the authors simulated nine different spectra of modern-day Earth representing nine snapshots of Earth’s rotation. Additionally, they also simulated a time-averaged spectrum that shows an entire Earth day in one snapshot without the time variability. These spectra are shown in Figure 3.

The authors then run retrieval models on all nine spectra to see if the vegetation red edge would be detectable in each spectrum, including the time-averaged one. Retrieval models take into account characteristics of the planet that would affect how light moves through its atmosphere, such as the atmospheric chemicals present and the surface gravity. They then use this information to generate possible spectral models that could fit the data. The best-fit model allows astronomers to infer what the atmosphere is made of and properties of the planet such as surface gravity. Because we are looking at Earth in visible light, much of the light from the planet is reflected. Typically, models of Earth-like planets in visible wavelengths only include atmospheric albedo: the measure of how reflective a planet’s atmosphere is. However, surface biosignatures can also be reflective as shown by the vegetation red edge. The authors use this to their advantage and introduce a surface albedo into their model that changes with the amount of desert, vegetation, and ocean visible on Earth’s surface at that time. They then further divide the nine spectra into three different types based upon the visible surface: majority land; 50% land, 50% ocean; and majority ocean. Check out the article online to see a cool animation of the Earth rotating and how the spectrum looks different at each time!

Arr! There Be… Vegetables?

After running the models, the authors were able to detect a sharp increase in the surface albedo value in every spectrum, including the time-averaged one. This result is shown in Figure 4. The authors take this result one step further in order to validate that the vegetation red edge is actually a result of surface variation of vegetation. They re-run models on each of their spectra but instead include a constant surface albedo instead of a time-varying one. This resulted in incorrectly measured radii, chemicals, and surface gravity in nearly all of the models. Without the vegetation red edge and surface features, the models could not accurately determine if life was present on Earth.

For the first time (to the author’s knowledge), the vegetation red edge has been shown to be a promising and observable biosignature in Earth-like atmospheres. This study has also laid the groundwork for future work on other surface biosignatures and their potential impact on spectra of habitable planets. Confirming signs of life in multiple different ways, both on the surface and in the atmosphere, will finally allow astronomers to say we are not alone in the universe. In fact, life likes to live on the (red) edge!

Original astrobite edited by Madison VanWyngarden.

About the author, Kaz Gary:

I am a fourth-year PhD candidate at The Ohio State University with a passion for planets. My current work focuses on modeling exoplanet observations for the Habitable Worlds Observatory and understanding planetary atmospheres. Outside of research, I help develop planetarium shows and love all forms of science communication. In my free time, I enjoy playing tabletop RPGs, painting, watching terrible reality TV, and hanging out with my pet hedgehog.

The post Life on the (Red) Edge appeared first on AAS Nova.

Editor’s Note: Astrobites is a graduate-student-run organization that digests astrophysical literature for undergraduate students. As part of the partnership between the AAS and astrobites, we occasionally repost astrobites content here at AAS Nova. We hope you enjoy this post from astrobites; the original can be viewed at astrobites.org.

Title: Clouds Can Enhance Direct-Imaging Detection of O₂ and O₃ on Terrestrial Exoplanets
Authors: Huanzhou Yang, Michelle Hu, and Dorian S. Abbot
First Author’s Institution: University of Chicago
Status: Published in ApJ

In the hunt for life beyond Earth, studying exoplanet atmospheres is one of our most powerful tools. The atmosphere of an exoplanet acts as a window into its environment and allows astronomers to take a guess at what processes are shaping the planet’s climate, chemistry, and thus, its potential for habitability. The gases present in the planet’s atmosphere impart a unique spectral fingerprint on the light that passes through the atmosphere and allows us to identify what gases might be present and look for possible signs of life.

JWST is already hard at work looking at distant worlds and gathering spectroscopic data for us to analyse. It has already observed several exoplanets and recorded the light that passed through their atmospheres. This has not only sparked a debate over what could be interpreted as the first possible signs of biological activity, but has also given us a glimpse of worlds that are remarkably different from our own.

However, JWST is mostly limited to observing the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets. That means planets that orbit close to their host star and are more or less directly edge-on, as viewed from us, so that they transit across the face of the star. The only planets that the telescope is able to observe directly are big, young, and hot planets farther from their host star, at distances more resembling those of the outer planets in our solar system, like Saturn or Uranus. If only we had a telescope powerful enough to image a potentially habitable planet directly and analyse the light reflected from it.

The Habitable Worlds Observatory

This is where the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will come in. Now, I know what you are thinking. Why must astronomers always look towards greener pastures bigger telescopes when we already have perfectly functional space telescopes in orbit or practically on the launch pad? Well, it is true that the next flagship space telescope from NASA, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, is designed to directly image exoplanets and analyse their atmospheres. But space telescopes can take decades to plan and are often built on lessons learned from previous missions. Roman, with its 2.4-meter primary mirror and coronagraph, will be able to observe planets similar in size and orbital distance to Jupiter and will get us some of the way, for sure, but not all the way. At three times the mirror size, HWO, NASA’s proposed successor to Roman that is planned for the 2040s, will carry the torch even further and be able to directly image Earth-like planets in the habitable zone, where liquid water can exist on the planet’s surface.

But It Might Be Cloudy Tomorrow

This brings us to today’s article. If the HWO is going to potentially observe Earth analogues, we might expect it to run into the same issue that plagues everyone living in the UK for most of the year — clouds. Clouds in the atmosphere of an exoplanet can sometimes cause trouble when trying to analyse the light. Cloud particles scatter different wavelengths of light differently, and cloud variability creates dynamic changes in the observed brightness that can make it hard to know what exactly you are looking at. Clouds can also mean varying levels of opacity to look through depending on cloud composition, and they can hide underlying atmospheric properties such as water content beneath a thick cloud layer. For transmission spectroscopy, even a thin layer of clouds can disrupt the measurements as the light has to travel a long distance through the atmosphere. However, for direct imaging, the effect of clouds is perhaps more nuanced. While a thick cloud deck will block the signal from whatever gas lies beneath it, it will also increase the overall albedo of the planet and make it easier to detect the gas above. This means that cloud height and type are both critical variables in understanding atmospheric properties of exoplanets, which is what the authors of today’s article set out to investigate.

To understand how clouds affect the ability to detect signs of life on distant Earth-like planets, the authors used computer simulations. They focused on two gases, molecular oxygen (O₂) and ozone (O₃). Both gases are often regarded as biosignatures, although their astrobiological significance has been debated. The authors first used a tool that simulates how a telescope like the HWO might observe an Earth-like planet around a star 15 parsecs away. This tool predicts how light bounces off a planet’s surface and atmosphere, and whether the two gases would show up clearly in the reflected light. Next, they created realistic cloud conditions using a cloud microphysics model. This model calculates how clouds might form and behave depending on factors like surface pressure or how much sunlight the planet gets. With this they were able to change things like cloud height and particle size. They then combined the two tools by adding the simulated clouds into the observations model and building a mathematical model to help explain what they saw in the simulations. The sketch for their model can be seen in Figure 1.

A Cloudy Sky Can Actually Be a Good Thing

The researchers discovered that low clouds can actually make gases like oxygen and ozone easier to detect, because these clouds reflect more light without blocking the gases above them. On the other hand, high clouds can make it harder since they can hide the gases from view. They tested different cloud types using real data from Earth as seen in Figure 2. They looked at five common cloud types, like stratus (flat and low), cirrus (high and wispy), and deep convective clouds (tall, thunderstorm-like), and compared them to their model clouds (labelled as CARMA in the figure).

They found that most clouds improved detection, especially if the cloud droplets were small (as they reflect more light). Stratus clouds and deep convective clouds gave the strongest boost to detection, because they have a lot of water and are either low (stratus) or extend through many layers (deep convective). Ozone saw the biggest bump in detectability as it is concentrated higher in the atmosphere, which means that it is in the region above most clouds where the increased reflection from the cloud layer below makes it easier to spot. This means that unlike the case for transit spectroscopy where clouds interfere with the detection of gases, for direct observations of the reflected light, clouds may actually be a good thing. This insight into the role of clouds in exoplanet atmospheres not only refines our current understanding but also helps guide the design of future telescopes, like the HWO, and our search for life on these remote worlds.

Original astrobite edited by Maria Vincent.

About the author, Kasper Zoellner:

I have a Master of Science in astronomy and I am currently working towards a PhD in physics and educational science. My greatest passion is the search for exoplanets and how stellar variability may influence the possibility of life. I am also interested in science outreach, education, and discussing what sci-fi novel to read next!

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Editor’s Note: Astrobites is a graduate-student-run organization that digests astrophysical literature for undergraduate students. As part of the partnership between the AAS and astrobites, we occasionally repost astrobites content here at AAS Nova. We hope you enjoy this post from astrobites; the original can be viewed at astrobites.org.

Title: Impacts on Ocean Worlds Are Sufficiently Frequent and Energetic to Be of Astrobiological Importance
Authors: Shannon M. MacKenzie et al.
First Author’s Institution: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Status: Published in PSJ

Asteroids and meteorites are usually associated with doom and destruction (rest easy, dinosaurs), but they may have also been essential for the emergence of life on Earth. It is popularly theorized that some of the base building blocks of life, like volatiles and organics, were delivered here by meteorites and that the energy of these impacts synthesized even more, like HCN and amino acids. Expectedly, the same should be true for other planets. Today’s article explores this possibility using nearby analogies for potentially habitable exoplanets: our solar system’s ocean worlds.

Why Do Meteorites Carry Organics?

The solar system formed from one massive cloud of gas and dust, so the composition everywhere is approximately the same. However, early Earth was an extremely hot ball of magma that destroyed its organic matter. Luckily, organics were able to survive in objects like meteorites in the cold outskirts of the solar system.

Ocean Worlds in Our Neighborhood

In the search for extraterrestrial life, we start by looking for the basic necessities — and water is a big one. Though Earth is the only planet in our solar system with liquid water, several moons of Jupiter and Saturn have it as well. These moons are beyond the balmy habitable zone, so their surfaces are covered in icy crusts, but beneath those crusts are subsurface oceans of liquid water, making these moons “ocean worlds” (see Figure 1). On their own, the presence of water makes these moons astrobiologically interesting, and they will also elucidate ocean worlds that are further away.

Today’s authors studied typical impact events on Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moons Enceladus and Titan to determine 1) if organics could survive the impacts, and 2) what processes could occur in the resulting melted material in the impact craters before it refreezes.

Surviving the Impact

To evaluate survivability, the authors modeled the maximum pressure of an impact on an ocean world’s ice crust for a range of impact velocities and angles. Around Jupiter and Saturn, most impactors are either icy or rocky objects that originate from the Kuiper Belt or Oort cloud, so the authors modeled both types of impactors. Rocky impactors create higher pressures (shown in gray in Figure 2) than icy impactors (shown in black in Figure 2). From the sizes of observed craters on the ocean world moons, previous works determined the velocities and pressures of impacts, which are shown by the colored boxes in Figure 2. Finally, a number of other works have estimated the ranges of survivable pressures for biota and biologically important molecules, which are shown by the green and black bars on the right of Figure 2. Impressively, the survivable pressure ranges are within the observed and modeled pressures of impacts! So these life building blocks can be, and likely have been, deposited on the ocean world moons.

Crater Melt Pools

When an impactor hits the icy crust, some of the ice will melt. The deposited organics will end up in a pool of liquid water in the crater, which is an ample environment for prebiotic chemistry until the pool freezes. From the observed crater sizes and modeled velocities, the authors estimated how much liquid water could remain in a crater and how long it would take to freeze. Freeze times ranged from a few Earth years for the smallest craters (<4 kilometers in diameter) to thousands of years for the largest craters (hundreds of kilometers). In labs on Earth mimicking the crater conditions, amino acids have been synthesized in as short as a few months to a few years, so synthesis is possible in the melt pools.

The pools eventually freeze, trapping any deposited or synthesized material on the icy surface. Other processes, like future impacts, are required to break through the icy crust and transport material to the subsurface oceans where theorized hydrothermal vents could allow more complex development.

Tangible Evidence

In summary, survivable impacts on the ocean world moons are common, and each provides an opportunity for prebiotic chemistry to arise. Unlike most objects astronomers study, the proximity of these ocean worlds means that we can thoroughly understand them through physical samples. NASA’s Cassini detected organic compounds in the plumes that burst off the surface of Enceladus, and the Dragonfly mission is set to head for Titan in 2028 to collect and analyze samples once it arrives in 2034. In the coming decades, we may witness the discovery of more precursors to life or microbial life itself in the subsurface oceans of moons in our solar system, and gain radical insight into the ocean worlds beyond.

Original astrobite edited by Sonja Panjkov.

About the author, Annelia Anderson:

I’m an Astrophysics PhD candidate at the University of Alabama, using simulations to study the circumgalactic medium. Beyond research, I’m interested in historical astronomy, and hope to someday write astronomy children’s books. Beyond astronomy, I enjoy making music, cooking, and my cat.

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