New method to detect oxygen on exoplanets 'could speed up search for extraterrestrial life' Scientists have developed a new method for detecting oxygen on far-flung planets which could speed up the search for extraterrestrial life.
Scientists have developed a new method for detecting oxygen on far-flung planets which could speed up the search for extraterrestrial life.
The technique will see researchers use Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope to examine exoplanets to detect a strong signal that oxygen molecules produce when they collide.
This signal could help scientists distinguish between living and non-living planets outside of our solar system.
Thomas Fauchez, of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre, and lead author of the study, said: “Before our work, oxygen at similar levels as on Earth was thought to be undetectable with Webb.
“This oxygen signal is known since the early 1980s from Earth’s atmospheric studies but has never been studied for exoplanet research.”
University of California Riverside astrobiologist Edward Schwieterman originally proposed a similar way of detecting high concentrations of oxygen from nonliving processes.
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