General Circulation Model Constraints on the Detectability of the CO2-CH4 Biosignature Pair on TRAPPIST-1e with JWST
In: The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Jg. 942 (2022), Heft 1, S. L4
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Zugriff:
Terrestrial exoplanets such as TRAPPIST-1e will be observed in a new capacity with the JWST/Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), which is expected to be able to detect CO _2 , CH _4 , and O _2 signals, if present, with multiple coadded transit observations. The CO _2 -CH _4 pair in particular is theorized to be a potential biosignature when inferred to be in chemical disequilibrium. Here, we simulate TRAPPIST-1e’s atmosphere using the ExoCAM general circulation model, assuming an optimistic haze-free, tidally locked planet with an aquaplanet surface, with varying atmospheric compositions from 10 ^−4 bar to 1 bar of partial CO _2 pressure with 1 bar of background N _2 . We investigate cases both with and without a modern Earth-like CH _4 mixing ratio to examine the effect of CO _2 and CH _4 on the transmission spectrum and climate state of the planet. We demonstrate that in the optimistic haze-free cloudy case, H _2 O, CO _2 , and CH _4 could all be detectable in less than 50 transits within an atmosphere of 1 bar N _2 and 10 mbar CO _2 during JWST’s lifespan with NIRSpec as long as the noise floor is ≲10 ppm. We find that in these optimistic cases, JWST may be able to detect potential biosignature pairs such as CO _2 -CH _4 in TRAPPIST-1e’s atmosphere across a variety of atmospheric CO _2 content, and that temporal climate variability does not significantly affect spectral feature variability for NIRSpec PRISM.
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General Circulation Model Constraints on the Detectability of the CO2-CH4 Biosignature Pair on TRAPPIST-1e with JWST
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Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | Rotman, Yoav ; Komacek, Thaddeus D. ; Villanueva, Geronimo L. ; Fauchez, Thomas J. ; May, Erin M. |
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Zeitschrift: | The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Jg. 942 (2022), Heft 1, S. L4 |
Veröffentlichung: | IOP Publishing, 2022 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
ISSN: | 2041-8213 (print) ; 2041-8205 (print) |
DOI: | 10.3847/2041-8213/acaa3f |
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