Large Interferometer for Exoplanets: VIII. Where Is the Phosphine? Observing Exoplanetary PH<sub>3</sub> with a Space-Based Mid-Infrared Nulling Interferometer

Angerhausen, Daniel; Ottiger, Maurice; Dannert, Felix; Miguel, Yamila; Sousa-Silva, Clara; Kammerer, Jens; Menti, Franziska; Alei, Eleonora; Konrad, Björn S.; Wang, Haiyang S.; Quanz, Sascha P.

doi:10.1089/ast.2022.0010

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…in LIFEʼs characterization phase is used for the feasibility study in the following sections following the same approach as Angerhausen et al (2023).…”

Section: A Simulator For Individual Spectroscopic Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following the same approach as in Angerhausen et al (2023), we used LIFESIM to produce synthetic observations of the outlined exoplanet cases with different flux levels of the discussed species and also without them being present in their atmospheres. For the presented output spectra, LIFESIM is configured with the current LIFE "baseline" setup with four apertures of 2 m diameter each, a broadband wavelength range of 4-18.5 μm, a throughput of 5%, and a spectral resolution of R = 50.…”

Section: A Simulator For Individual Spectroscopic Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We modeled the detectability of N 2 O for a set of observation times of 10, 50, and 100 days using the LIFE baseline setup shown in Table 1. Based on our experience from previous LIFE studies (e.g., Alei et al 2022b;Konrad et al 2022;Angerhausen et al 2023) the 10 day case represents a relatively short (potentially preliminary) characterization observation that can be conducted for a larger sample of targets, 50 days represent a more thorough observation and 100 days will be the deepest characterization observation for only the most interesting/ promising targets for LIFE. In Section 4.3 we also vary the integration times and explore setups beyond the LIFE baseline.…”

Section: Detectability Of N 2 Omentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Carrión-González et al (2023) studied how LIFE can detect currently already known exoplanets and how it can leverage synergies HWO. Lastly Angerhausen et al (2023) reported on the detectability of phosphine (PH 3 ) in different exoplanetary scenarios with LIFE. Here, we explore the detectability of nitrous oxide and methylated halogens with a mid-infrared space-nulling interferometer observatory like LIFE.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE). XII. The Detectability of Capstone Biosignatures in the Mid-infrared—Sniffing Exoplanetary Laughing Gas and Methylated Halogens

Angerhausen,

Pidhorodetska,

Leung

et al. 2024

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This study aims to identify exemplary science cases for observing N2O, CH3Cl, and CH3Br in exoplanet atmospheres at abundances consistent with biogenic production using a space-based mid-infrared nulling interferometric observatory, such as the Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE) mission concept. We use a set of scenarios derived from chemical kinetics models that simulate the atmospheric response of varied levels of biogenic production of N2O, CH3Cl, and CH3Br in O2-rich terrestrial planet atmospheres to produce forward models for our LIFEsim observation simulator software. In addition, we demonstrate the connection to retrievals for selected cases. We use the results to derive observation times needed for the detection of these scenarios and apply them to define science requirements for the mission. Our analysis shows that in order to detect relevant abundances with a mission like LIFE in its current baseline setup, we require: (i) only a few days of observation time for certain very nearby “golden target” scenarios, which also motivate future studies of “spectral-temporal” observations (ii) ∼10 days in certain standard scenarios such as temperate, terrestrial planets around M star hosts at 5 pc, (iii) ∼50–100 days in the most challenging but still feasible cases, such as an Earth twin at 5 pc. A few cases with very low fluxes around specific host stars are not detectable. In summary, the abundances of these capstone biosignatures are detectable at plausible biological production fluxes for most cases examined and for a significant number of potential targets.

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“…in LIFEʼs characterization phase is used for the feasibility study in the following sections following the same approach as Angerhausen et al (2023).…”

Section: A Simulator For Individual Spectroscopic Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Simulator For Individual Spectroscopic Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Detectability Of N 2 Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE). XII. The Detectability of Capstone Biosignatures in the Mid-infrared—Sniffing Exoplanetary Laughing Gas and Methylated Halogens

Angerhausen,

Pidhorodetska,

Leung

et al. 2024

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“…The study of prebiosignatures is a natural extension of the search for biosignatures, and many works have explored the detection of life beyond Earth (e.g., Segura et al 2005;Kaltenegger et al 2010;Rauer et al 2011;Krissansen-Totton et al 2016;Seager et al 2016;Rugheimer & Kaltenegger 2018;Alei et al 2022;Angerhausen et al 2023;Konrad et al 2022). The nature of prebiosignatures and our (lack of) understanding of the origin of life draws us to take an open-minded approach, and explore any molecule or process that could support abiogenesis.…”

Section: Prebiosignaturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prebiosignature Molecules Can Be Detected in Temperate Exoplanet Atmospheres with JWST

Claringbold,

Rimmer,

Rugheimer

et al. 2023

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The search for biosignatures on exoplanets connects the fields of biology and biochemistry to astronomical observation, with the hope that we might detect evidence of active biological processes on worlds outside the solar system. Here we focus on a complementary aspect of exoplanet characterization connecting astronomy to prebiotic chemistry: the search for molecules associated with the origin of life, prebiosignatures. Prebiosignature surveys in planetary atmospheres offer the potential to both constrain the ubiquity of life in the galaxy and provide important tests of current prebiotic syntheses outside of the laboratory setting. Here, we quantify the minimum abundance of identified prebiosignature molecules that would be required for detection by transmission spectroscopy using JWST. We consider prebiosignatures on five classes of terrestrial planets: an ocean planet, a volcanic planet, a post-impact planet, a super-Earth, and an early-Earth analog. Using a novel modeling and detection test pipeline, with simulated JWST noise, we find the detection thresholds of hydrogen cyanide ( HCN ), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), cyanoacetylene (HC3N), ammonia (NH3), methane (CH4), acetylene (C2H2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitric oxide (NO), formaldehyde (CH2O), and carbon monoxide (CO) in a variety of low-mean-molecular-weight (<5) atmospheres. We test the dependence of these detection thresholds on an M dwarf target star and the number of observed transits, finding that a modest number of transits (1–10) are required to detect prebiosignatures in numerous candidate planets, including TRAPPIST-1e with a high-mean-molecular-weight atmosphere. We find that the Near Infrared Spectrograph G395M/H instrument is best suited for detecting most prebiosignatures.

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Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE)

Carrión-González,

Kammerer,

Angerhausen

et al. 2023

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Context. The next generation of space-based observatories will characterize the atmospheres of low-mass, temperate exoplanets with the direct-imaging technique. This will be a major step forward in our understanding of exoplanet diversity and the prevalence of potentially habitable conditions beyond the Earth. Aims. We compute a list of currently known exoplanets detectable with the mid-infrared Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE) in thermal emission. We also compute the list of known exoplanets accessible to a notional design of the future Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), observing in reflected starlight. Methods. With a pre-existing statistical methodology, we processed the NASA Exoplanet Archive and computed orbital realizations for each known exoplanet. We derived their mass, radius, equilibrium temperature, and planet-star angular separation. We used the LIFEsim simulator to compute the integration time (tint) required to detect each planet with LIFE. A planet is considered detectable if a broadband signal-to-noise ratio S/N = 7 is achieved over the spectral range 4–18.5 µm in tint < 100 h. We tested whether the planet is accessible to HWO in reflected starlight based on its notional inner and outer working angles, and minimum planet-to-star contrast. Results. LIFE's reference configuration (four 2-m telescopes with 5% throughput and a nulling baseline between 10–100 m) can detect 212 known exoplanets within 20 pc. Of these, 49 are also accessible to HWO in reflected starlight, offering a unique opportunity for synergies in atmospheric characterization. LIFE can also detect 32 known transiting exoplanets. Furthermore, we find 38 LIFE-detectable planets orbiting in the habitable zone, of which 13 have Mp < 5M⊕ and eight have 5M⊕ < Mp < 10M⊕. Conclusions. LIFE already has enough targets to perform ground-breaking analyses of low-mass, habitable-zone exoplanets, a fraction of which will also be accessible to other instruments.

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Large Interferometer for Exoplanets: VIII. Where Is the Phosphine? Observing Exoplanetary PH₃ with a Space-Based Mid-Infrared Nulling Interferometer

Cited by 12 publications

References 45 publications

Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE). XII. The Detectability of Capstone Biosignatures in the Mid-infrared—Sniffing Exoplanetary Laughing Gas and Methylated Halogens

Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE). XII. The Detectability of Capstone Biosignatures in the Mid-infrared—Sniffing Exoplanetary Laughing Gas and Methylated Halogens

Prebiosignature Molecules Can Be Detected in Temperate Exoplanet Atmospheres with JWST

Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE)

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Large Interferometer for Exoplanets: VIII. Where Is the Phosphine? Observing Exoplanetary PH3 with a Space-Based Mid-Infrared Nulling Interferometer

Cited by 12 publications

References 45 publications

Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE). XII. The Detectability of Capstone Biosignatures in the Mid-infrared—Sniffing Exoplanetary Laughing Gas and Methylated Halogens

Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE). XII. The Detectability of Capstone Biosignatures in the Mid-infrared—Sniffing Exoplanetary Laughing Gas and Methylated Halogens

Prebiosignature Molecules Can Be Detected in Temperate Exoplanet Atmospheres with JWST

Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Large Interferometer for Exoplanets: VIII. Where Is the Phosphine? Observing Exoplanetary PH₃ with a Space-Based Mid-Infrared Nulling Interferometer