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Biosignatures from Earth-Like Planets Around M Dwarfs
Crisp, David; Cohen, Martin; Tinetti, Giovanna +5 more
Coupled one-dimensional photochemical-climate calculations have been performed for hypothetical Earth-like planets around M dwarfs. Visible/near-infrared and thermal-infrared synthetic spectra of these planets were generated to determine which biosignature gases might be observed by a future, space-based telescope. Our star sample included two obs…
Biologically Enhanced Energy and Carbon Cycling on Titan?
Grinspoon, David H.; Schulze-Makuch, Dirk
With the Cassini-Huygens Mission in orbit around Saturn, the large moon Titan, with its reducing atmosphere, rich organic chemistry, and heterogeneous surface, moves into the astrobiological spotlight. Environmental conditions on Titan and Earth were similar in many respects 4 billion years ago, the approximate time when life originated on Earth. …
COSAC Onboard Rosetta: A Bioastronomy Experiment for the Short-Period Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Roll, Reinhard; Rosenbauer, Helmut; Gösmann, Fred +1 more
The COSAC (Cometary Sampling and Composition Experiment) onboard the Rosetta mission is a combined gas chromatograph (GC)-mass spectrometer (MS). It is situated on Philae, the lander of the mission, which is intended to land on the nucleus of comet 67/PChuryumov- Gerasimenko. The purpose of the experiment is to analyze the volatile fraction of soi…