Colloquium: The Search for Life on Planets Around Other Stars
Planets have now been found around several thousand stars. Some of these are thought to be rocky, and a handful of those lie within the habitable zone of their parent star, where liquid water is stable on the planet’s surface. Characterizing the atmospheres of these planets is the next order of business. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which launched successfully last December, may be able to do spectroscopy on transiting rocky planets around nearby M stars. Likely targets include several of the planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. The best opportunity to study Earth-like planets will come 15-20 years later, however, if NASA chooses to build a direct imaging space telescope similar to the LUVOIR-B concept recommended by the U.S. 2020 Astronomy & Astrophysics Decadal Survey. The LIFE infrared nulling interferometer currently being studied by ESA could provide complementary spectroscopic information at longer wavelengths. With telescopes such as these, we could identify and characterize non-transiting planets around the very nearest stars. This could provide information not only about other Earth-like planets, but also about the existence, or non-existence, of extraterrestrial life.
recording: www.youtube.com/watch