vegetation red edge Archives - Astrobiology

Simulated multiband light-curve populations in the Cchroma–Ccross diagnostic plane. Left: noise-dominated, natural, and coherent variability classes (N ≈ 167 each, 500 total); ellipses show population covariance, open circles mark centroid-nearest examples. Right: normalised Rubin/LSST g, r, i light curves for those examples; coherent case shows stable cross-band structure, natural case shows stochastic variability, noise case is dominated by incoherent fluctuations. -- astro-ph.IM

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report

Prospects for Astrobiology And Technosignature Searches With The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey Of Space And Time

by Keith CowingJune 12, 2026June 12, 2026

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will map sources in multiband colour–variability space.

Graphical Abstract. Created in BioRender. Liistro, E. (2026) https://BioRender.com/j2de4ay

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Plant Biology, Status Report

Is Constitutive Red-shift An Advantage For Oxygenic Photosynthesis Under M-dwarf Starlight? Insights From Acaryochloris marina sp. str. Moss Beach

by Keith CowingApril 29, 2026April 29, 2026

In the next years, several space missions will search for evidence of life on exoplanets, focusing on robust biosignatures associated with oxygenic photosynthesis, including atmospheric oxygen accumulation and the Vegetation […]

True colour image of a cloud-free Ocean planet at α = 90◦with different surface wind speed maps. In the first row, we use a constant wind speed and notice the impact on the brightness and size of the ocean glint. In the second row, we use realistic wind speed maps from ERA5, and we notice the inhomogenous shape of the ocean glint. We report the average wind speed from the various ERA5 fields in the sub-figures. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Planet Earth In Reflected And Polarized Light I. 3D Radiative Transfer Simulations Of Realistic Surface-atmosphere Systems

by Keith CowingMay 25, 2025May 24, 2025

Future telescopes will characterize rocky exoplanets in reflected light, revealing their albedo, which depends on surface, cloud, and atmospheric properties.

Floating vegetation on an exoplanet -- Grok via Astrobiology.com

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release, Space Agriculture, Space Life Science, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Can We Find Floating Vegetation On Ocean Planets?

by Keith CowingMarch 5, 2025March 5, 2025

Astronomical surveys have discovered nearly 6,000 exoplanets, including many habitable planets, which may harbor liquid water on their surfaces. The search for life on such planets is one of the […]

Two new spaceborne Earth-observing instruments will help scientists better understand how global forests and ecosystems are affected by changes in climate and land use change. This image of the Amazon rainforest is from a 2010 global map of the height of the world’s forests based on multiple satellite datasets. Credits: NASA Earth Observatory

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Status Report, Terraforming & Geoengineering, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Impact of Vegetation Albedo on the Habitability of Earth-like Exoplanets

by Keith CowingSeptember 4, 2024September 4, 2024

Vegetation can modify the planetary surface albedo via the Charney mechanism, as plants are usually darker than the bare surface of the continents.

Graphical illustration of potential scenarios leading to potentially detectable abiotic O2 and/or O3. Circle molecules identify spectrally active species such as O4 (O2-O2 collisionally induced absorption) that could be used to fingerprint the origin(s) of O2 and/or O3, while the red strike-through indicates species that should be absent. Modern Earth is distinguished by the combination of spectrally active O2, O3, H2O, CO2, and CH4 together with low levels of CO. See section “False Positives for Oxygen and Ozone Biosignatures” in this text for additional details. This figure is reproduced from Meadows et al. (2018) under Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY. Graphic artist: R. Hasler. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

An Overview Of Exoplanet Biosignatures

by Keith CowingApril 25, 2024April 25, 2024

This chapter reviews proposed exoplanet biosignatures, including their biological origins, observable features, atmospheric sinks, and potentially confounding abiotic sources.

photosynthetic

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Plant Biology, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1

Photosynthetic Fluorescence From Earth-Like Planets Around Sun-Like Aand Cool Stars

by Keith CowingJanuary 11, 2023January 11, 2023

Remote sensing of the Earth has demonstrated that photosynthesis is traceable as the vegetation red edge (VRE), which is the steep rise in the reflection spectrum of vegetation, and as […]