Phase 3 – Working Group 1
WG1: Spectroscopic biosignatures in planetary atmospheres
The Working Group 1 (WG1) aims to utilise the cross-domain expertise in PlanetS to better understand potential habitats. These habitats range from the terrestrial planets and the icy moons of the Solar System to exoplanets. Current theory, laboratory experiments, and observations will help WG1 to prepare a list of potential biomarkers that can indicate habitable environments. A similar list will also be prepared for biosignatures that indicate the presence of life that life. Further, WG1 will determine the characteristics of instruments that could enable the detection of these bioindicators and biosignatures. Finally, WG1 will use pre-established instrumental specifications to produce realistic synthetic data that can be explored via state-of-the-art retrieval techniques.
Some key questions that the working group aims to tackle are:
- What are the most easily accessible, reliable bioindicators and biosignatures?
- What are the most likely false-positive biomarkers and biosignatures, and how can they be easily identified?
- How can synergies between different characterization techniques and instruments be exploited best, when establishing a roadmap for future flagship experiments?
To date, 42 members and associates of the NCCR PlanteS have indicated interest in the activities of WG1 to date.
Current WG1 Coordination Team:
Nikita Boeren (U Bern)
Guillaume Chaverot (U Geneva)
Björn Konrad (ETH Zurich)
WG1 Meetings in 2022
Of the 42 in the WG1 activities, 26 people attended the first full day in-person meeting of WG1 on the 16th of September 2022 in Bern. After a brief introduction round, four invited speakers from within PlanetS (Eleonora Alei, Nikita Boeren, Daniel Angerhausen, and Caroline Haslebacher) provided insights into their current research efforts and motivated relations between spectroscopic biosignatures and bioindicators and their work. Subsequently, the attendees were split into small subgroups and held discussions to identify topics of interest, which could be tackled within the structure of WG1. In the final in-plenum session, the subgroups presented their findings to the remaining attendees. The presentations were followed by an in-plenum discussion.
This first in-person meeting was followed by a half-day virtual meeting on the 24th of November 2022, which was attended by 23 people. During this meeting, the previously identified topics were discussed in greater detail with the goal of identifying and specifying research the questions of interest to the WG1 members.
WG1 Meetings in 2023
For the remainder of the first year of WG1 activities, we plan organise one additional virtual meeting on the 4th of April and one in-person meeting on the 13th of June. The main goal for these meetings is to allow for new discussions between PlanetS researchers on the topic of spectroscopic biosignatures. An additional aim for these meetings is to consolidate and refine 3-5 scientific questions of interest, which the WG1 participants will work on collaboratively in the upcoming years. The outcome of WG1 activities can include but is not limited to specific project papers, review papers or white papers.
