If the James Webb Telescope is successful we may detect methane in exoplanet atmospheres soon. Does that mean life? It might.
When the James Webb Space Telescope aims at exoplanet atmospheres, it’ll use spectroscopy to identify chemical elements. One of the things it’s looking for is methane, a chemical compound that can indicate the presence of life.
Methane is interesting because it doesn’t last long in an atmosphere. Photochemical reactions destroy it, so detecting a lot of it means something is constantly replenishing it. There has to be a large and prominent source. “Terrestrial planets, which are the focus of this study, require significant methane surface fluxes to sustain high atmospheric abundances,” the study says.
” It’s available online at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences The lead author is Maggie Thompson, a graduate student in astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. This research letter wants to put scientists in a stronger position to interpret methane’s presence in an exoplanet atmosphere. The idea is to identify what other questions researchers need to ask when they detect methane. What other indications will support the conclusion that methane is a biosignature? What will contradict that?
This figure from the study compares methane sources on Earth. The top row shows biogenic methane flux; all other rows show abiogenic methane flux from other sources. No abiotic source can produce the same methane flux as life can. Image Credit: Thompson et al. 2022.
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