Futurology Today
  • Communities
  • Create Post
  • heart
    Support Lemmy
  • search
    Search
  • Login
  • Sign Up
LughMA to FuturologyEnglish · 4 days ago

Biopigments of atmospheric microorganisms may be a new way to detect life on exoplanets.

arxiv.org

external-link
message-square
0
link
fedilink
9
external-link

Biopigments of atmospheric microorganisms may be a new way to detect life on exoplanets.

arxiv.org

LughMA to FuturologyEnglish · 4 days ago
message-square
0
link
fedilink
Colors of Life in the Clouds: Biopigments of atmospheric microorganisms as a new signature to detect life on planets like Earth
arxiv.org
external-link
When Carl Sagan and Ed Salpeter envisioned potential Sinkers, Floaters, and Hunters living in Jupiter's clouds in 1976 (C. Sagan & E. E. Salpeter 1976), the nature of life in Earth's atmosphere remained widely unknown. Decades later, research has revealed a remarkable variety of microorganisms in our atmosphere. However, the spectral features of airborne microbes as biomarkers for detecting atmospheric life remained a mystery. Here, we present the first reflectance spectra of biopigments of atmospheric microorganisms based on laboratory cultivars of seven microbial strains isolated from Earth's atmosphere. We show their distinct UV-resistant biosignatures and their impacts on models of diverse planetary scenarios, using Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) parameters. The reflectance of these biopigments from aerial bacteria creates the means to detect them on other Earth-like planets. It provides a paradigm shift that moves the search for life beyond the surface of a planet to ecosystems in atmospheres and clouds.
alert-triangle
You must log in or register to comment.

Futurology

futurology

Subscribe from Remote Instance

Create a post
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !futurology@futurology.today
Visibility: Public
globe

This community can be federated to other instances and be posted/commented in by their users.

  • 17 users / day
  • 137 users / week
  • 739 users / month
  • 3.95K users / 6 months
  • 91 local subscribers
  • 3.39K subscribers
  • 2.11K Posts
  • 12.8K Comments
  • Modlog
  • mods:
  • voidx
  • Lugh
  • Espiritdescali
  • AwesomeLowlander
  • BE: 0.19.11
  • Modlog
  • Legal
  • Instances
  • Docs
  • Code
  • join-lemmy.org