LIFE (Large Interferometer For Exoplanets) Archives

Summary of technosignature detectability with future missions for each scenario. Darker colors indicate where multiple technosignatures in a scenario are observable by a mission. -- astro-ph.EP

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report

Projections of Earth’s Technosphere: Strategies For Observing Technosignatures On Terrestrial Exoplanets

by Keith CowingNovember 29, 2025November 29, 2025

The search for technosignatures — remotely detectable evidence of extraterrestrial technology — draws upon examples from the recent history of Earth as well as projections of Earth’s technosphere.

Distance distribution of HZ planet populations around M and FGK-type stars detectable with LIFE in the current baseline setup (see Table 1). Left: Detection yield predictions for planets around M-type stars with an underlying AFGKM exoplanet population following occurrence rate estimates from NASA’s ExoPaG SAG13 (Kopparapu et al. 2018) and Dressing & Charbonneau (2015). Right: Detection yield predictions around FGK-type stars with an underlying FGK exoplanet population based on occurence rates from Bryson et al. (2021). We differentiate between three HZ definitions: optimistic (opt) HZ, conservative (con) HZ and exo-Earth candidates (EECs). The bars show the predicted median planet yields and 1-σ uncertainties derived from the Monte Carlo simulations. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE): XII. The Detectability of Capstone Biosignatures in the Mid-Infrared — Sniffing Exoplanetary Laughing Gas and Methylated Halogens

by Keith CowingJanuary 18, 2024January 18, 2024

This study aims to identify exemplary science cases for observing N2O, CH3Cl, and CH3Br in exoplanet atmospheres at abundances consistent with biogenic production using a space-based mid-infrared nulling interferometric observatory, […]

LIFE (Large Interferometer For Exoplanets)

Projections of Earth’s Technosphere: Strategies For Observing Technosignatures On Terrestrial Exoplanets

Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE): XII. The Detectability of Capstone Biosignatures in the Mid-Infrared — Sniffing Exoplanetary Laughing Gas and Methylated Halogens

Why Europa’s Hidden Ocean May Be More Difficult To Reach Than Scientists Thought

Pinpointing Where Cells First Begin Copying DNA

Experimental Measurements of Benzene Ice Critical Saturation Ratios on Titan Tholins and Impact on the Microphysical Modeling of Titan’s South Polar Benzene Cloud

From Mars to Minas: Research Reclassifies Organisms That Thrive In Highly Saline Environments

Could Alien Signals Be Hiding On A Different Radio Channel?