Responsible Discovery in Astrobiology: Lessons from Four Controversial Claims
This paper examines four case studies of life-detection claims in astrobiology, covering both biosignatures and technosignatures: the 1877 “canals” on Mars, the 1976 Mars Viking landers experiments, the 2020 phosphine detection on Venus, and the 2020 Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1 (BLC1) signal.
We analyse the process of discovery for each case, including how they were detected, the media reception, the ensuing scientific debate, the correction processes, and the time it took until an expert consensus was reached.
We identify lessons learned while providing scientists, the scientific community, and science communicators with recommendations for approaching future claims of astrobiological discoveries.
To avoid potential cognitive biases and mitigate premature conclusions, we stress the need for clear communication of uncertainties, as well as thorough debate and verification processes among the scientific community.
These responsible approaches can strengthen the credibility of scientists, cultivate a supportive scientific community, and help astrobiology flourish as a field.
Summary of main features involved in four case studies of astrobiological claims.
Daliah Raquel Bibas, Clément Vidal
Comments: To appear in: Responsibility in Space, edited by G. Ünüvar, A. Bower, and R. Gonzalez. Routledge
Subjects: Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Cite as: arXiv:2512.04122 [physics.pop-ph] (or arXiv:2512.04122v1 [physics.pop-ph] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.04122
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Submission history
From: Clément Vidal
[v1] Tue, 2 Dec 2025 14:12:46 UTC (427 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.04122
Astrobiology,
