ELT Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Astrobiology

This artist’s impression shows a view of the surface of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. © ESO/M. Kornmesser

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Proxima Centauri

Conclusive Tests For The RISTRETTO Proxima b Exoplanet Explorer

by Keith CowingDecember 10, 2025December 10, 2025

The RISTRETTO project, dedicated to observing Proxima b –the closest exoplanet to the Solar System — is reaching a new milestone: several key components of this high-precision spectrograph have been […]

Transit spectra of the best fit non-equilibrium 1D model at resolution 200 (black solid line). This is the approximate best fit on the simulated grid of metallicity, C/O and Kzz. Values are respectively 280.7, 90.0 and 106 cm2 .s−1 . It is compare to K2-18 b observation (Madhusudhan et al. 2023) low resolution representation with an offset of -41ppm between NIRISS and NIRSpec data. The contributions of considered molecules are represented with shaded colors. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Unraveling The Non-equilibrium Chemistry Of The Temperate Sub-Neptune K2-18 b

by Keith CowingJuly 22, 2025July 22, 2025

The search for habitable, Earth-like exoplanets faces major observational challenges due to their small size and faint signals.

PORTAL’s web interface. Observation view for a particular night for SPECULOOS-3 target observed by Artemis telescope at SNO. The transit of SPECULOOS-3b planet was detected thanks to PORTAL observation view by our team. The planet was later confirmed by a follow-up campaign by the SPECULOOS team. -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

SPECULOOS: Five Years Hunting Terrestrial Planets Around Ultra-cool Dwarfs

by Keith CowingJune 12, 2025June 12, 2025

The SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) project aims to detect temperate terrestrial planets transiting nearby ultracool dwarfs, including late M-dwarf stars and brown dwarfs, which are well-suited […]

Reflected light (top row) and polarized light (bottom row) spectra for various homogeneous, cloud-free planets with different surface types. The wavelength-dependent spectral features of desert, forest, and polar surfaces are taken from HAMSTER (Roccetti et al. 2024) and modeled as Lambertian reflectors, while the ocean surface incorporates BRDF and BPDF treatments. Each column corresponds to spectra at different phase angles α: 60, 90, 120◦ -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Planet Earth in Reflected and Polarized Light: II. Refining Contrast Estimates for Rocky Exoplanets with ELT and HWO

by Keith CowingJune 6, 2025June 6, 2025

The characterization of nearby rocky exoplanets will become feasible with the next generation of telescopes, such as the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) and the mission concept Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO).

GJ 3998 d credit: Gabriel Pérez Díaz (SMM, IAC)

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

A Super-Earth Discovered In The Habitable Zone Of Nearby Red Dwarf GJ 3998

by Keith CowingMarch 13, 2025March 13, 2025

An international team, led by a student from Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has detected a super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone of GJ 3998, a nearby red dwarf […]

Integration time to a 3σ detection for a range of terrestrial atmosphere types on Earth-sized planets orbiting analog nearby targets. Each panel represents a different molecular band, and each color represents a different nearby host star/planet analog. Filled and open circles represent assumed instrumental contrasts of C=10−3 and C=10−4 , respectively, and we assume a total throughput of 10%. A Proxima Centauri b analog (1.3 pc away) is plotted in blue, and a sub-Neptune version of Proxima Centauri b is included for comparison. We may be able to detect several molecules within 100 hours of observing each target, and our Proxima Centauri b analog is the most favorable nearby target for thorough atmospheric characterization. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Simulating The Detectability Of A Range Of Molecules For High-contrast, High-resolution Observations Of Non-transiting Terrestrial Exoplanets

by Keith CowingMarch 13, 2025March 13, 2025

The upcoming extremely large telescopes will provide the first opportunity to search for signs of habitability and life on non-transiting terrestrial exoplanets using high-contrast, high-resolution instrumentation.

RV dataset of HD 20794 for the different datasets. The HARPS RVs have been extracted using YARARA (Cretignier et al. 2021a, 2023). For ESPRESSO, RVs have been extracted with sBART (Silva et al. 2022). -- Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

A Super-Earth Laboratory For Searching Life Elsewhere In The Universe

by Keith CowingFebruary 2, 2025February 1, 2025

‘‘Are we alone in the Universe?’’ For thousands of years, this question was confined to philosophy, and it is only very recently that modern science has begun to provide solid […]

Statistical power of the habitable zone oxygen hypothesis test on the ELT for different values of η⊕ and different fractions of exo-Earth candidates (EECs, left) and fractions of exo-super Earth candidates (ESECs, right) with Earth-like levels of O2. Statistical power contours for 50% and 95% are shown in black. More planets with oxygen and/or higher values for η⊕ result in a greater ability to test this hypothesis, however, the inclusion of all super-Earths does not necessarily improve this ability. We note that these figures are super-sampled to highlight differences. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Proxima Centauri, Status Report

Bioverse: GMT and ELT Direct Imaging and High-Resolution Spectroscopy Assessment – Surveying Exo-Earth O2 and Testing the Habitable Zone Oxygen Hypothesis

by Keith CowingFebruary 1, 2025February 1, 2025

Biosignature detection in the atmospheres of Earth-like exoplanets is one of the most significant and ambitious goals for astronomy, astrobiology, and humanity. Molecular oxygen is among the strongest indicators of […]

Differential transmission spectra of various superhabitable (SH) planet scenarios, as well as Kepler-62e and modern Earth around the Sun, calculated using the forward model code POSEIDON. Spectral features are displayed in parts per million (ppm) relative to each planet's baseline transit depth, enhancing the visibility of individual molecular signatures. Key absorption features of major atmospheric constituents, including O2 , O3 , CH4 , H2O, N2O, CO2 , CH3Cl, and CO, are indicated (see Table 3). Line descriptions are consistent with those in Figure 3. Solid gray lines represent SH planets receiving an incident stellar flux of 0.8 solar constants (S0 = 1366 W/m2 ), positioned between the inner edge and center of their respective host star’s habitable zone (HZ), while dashed lines represent SH planets at 0.6 S0 , aligned with the center of the HZ. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Superhabitable Planets Around Mid-Type K Dwarf Stars Enhance Simulated JWST Observability and Surface Habitability

by Keith CowingJanuary 8, 2025January 8, 2025

In our search for life beyond the Solar System, certain planetary bodies may be more conducive to life than Earth. However, the observability of these `superhabitable’ planets in the habitable […]

Validation and low-cost schemes’ performance on key and major molecules. The plots illustrate the performance of our method on key molecules for HD 209458b (a) and HD 189733b (b). Left: Molar fractions of key molecules as a function of pressure in the atmosphere. The full V20 model is represented by a solid line, DARWEN’s validation scheme by a dashed-dotted line, low-cost schemes by a dashed line, and the reduced scheme (R20) by a dotted line. Right: Maximal percentage changes in the molar fractions of the key molecules compared to the full model. The full model’s line is not shown because it serves as the reference model. Lines close to zero indicate that the predictions are nearly identical to those of the full model for that molecule. We only show changes bigger than 1%. -- astro-ph.EP

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report

DARWEN: Data-driven Algorithm for Reduction of Wide Exoplanetary Networks

by Keith CowingDecember 11, 2024December 11, 2024

Exoplanet atmospheric modeling is advancing from chemically diverse one-dimensional (1D) models to three-dimensional (3D) global circulation models (GCMs), which are crucial for interpreting observations from facilities like the James Webb […]