LIFEsim Archives - Astrobiology

Integration time required for an Earth-twin around a given star to reach an SNR of 7, plotted as a function of stellar parameters. The baseline limits are set at 25-80 m. The LIFE stellar sample is over-plotted in black, and integration time contours are over-plotted in white. Dotted contours show the same integration time contours, but for the 10-100 m case for comparative purposes. Solid horizontal lines show the boundaries between stellar types of F, G, K and M; and dashed horizontal lines show the boundaries between LIFE’s target stellar populations. -- astro-ph.IM

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

A Preliminary Exploration Of The Effects Of Baseline Length For The LIFE Space Mission

by Keith CowingMay 9, 2026May 9, 2026

By aiming to find and characterise dozens of habitable exoplanets through the technique of nulling interferometry, the LIFE space mission will produce transformational science. One of the key parameters for […]

Analog Studies, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

The Goldilocks Problem For Detecting Water In Terrestrial Planets: Constraining Water Abundances In The mid-IR With LIFE

by Keith CowingApril 10, 2026April 10, 2026

We investigate how well the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE) mission concept can detect habitable conditions on exoplanets through the presence of atmospheric water vapor as a proxy for surface […]

[LEFT] Outgoing longwave radiation of six potentially visible hemispheres of the planet. Teegarden's Star is one of the most promising targets for the first observations of LIFE, as a non-transiting rocky planet with similar bulk properties to the Earth, and a relatively quiescent M-dwarf host star. [RIGHT} Cloud fraction averaged over all pressure levels.]

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report

Disentangling The Hemispheres Of Teegarden’s Star b With LIFE

by Keith CowingDecember 23, 2025December 23, 2025

We use LIFEsim, a software developed by the ETH LIFE team, along with thermal emission maps obtained from a suite of three-dimensional global climate model (GCM) simulations, to explore the […]

Statistical significance (as a function of wavelength) of the difference in retrieved emission flux calculated via LIFEsim between the biotic and abiotic scenarios studied in this work. The columns (from left to right) show increasing planet instellation; the different rows show different observation integration times (from 24–240 hours) -- astro-ph.EP

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Detectability Of Biosignatures In Warm, Water-rich Atmospheres

by Keith CowingDecember 3, 2024December 3, 2024

Warm rocky exoplanets within the habitable zone of Sun-like stars are favoured targets for current and future missions. Theory indicates these planets could be wet at formation and remain habitable […]