As of: March 17, 2024, 9:23 p.m
By: Tanja Banner
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Yes, life can exist on our Earth, says a new study.
But it's actually about something completely different: the search for life in the universe.
Zurich – Our earth is a planet on which life is possible.
This is the result of a study from Switzerland.
But the study is actually about something different: a research team from ETH Zurich used Earth to test whether a planned space mission can actually fulfill its task.
Space mission “LIFE” is intended to find life in the universe
The mission in question is called “LIFE” (Large Interferometer for Exoplanets).
And the name says it all: five small satellites are to be positioned at Lagrange point 2 in space and together form a large telescope, a so-called interferometer.
This is intended to capture the thermal radiation from exoplanets in the infrared range and find out whether there is or could be life there.
Yes, there is life on earth.
This is shown by a Swiss study that tested whether a planned space mission to search for life in the universe would work.
(Archive image) © imago/UPI Photo
This will be done by researchers examining the data and finding out how the exoplanets and their atmospheres are made up.
“The aim is to detect chemical compounds in the light spectrum that indicate life on the exoplanets,” explains Sascha Quanz, who heads the “LIFE” initiative, in a statement.
Researchers are testing “LIFE” technology on Earth
Instead of testing the capability of the future LIFE satellites using simulated spectra, the research team used real data from the only planet where life is known to date: Earth.
The data came from NASA's Aqua research satellite.
The research team used this to generate emission spectra of the Earth in the mid-infrared range - as they should be recorded in future observations of exoplanets.
The most important finding of the study, which was published in
The Astrophysical Journal
: If the LIFE space telescope were to observe the Earth from a distance of around 30 light-years, it would find evidence of what our planet is actually like: temperate and habitable.
The research team was able to detect concentrations of CO₂, water, ozone and methane in the infrared spectra of the Earth's atmosphere.
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Is a nearby Earth-like exoplanet habitable or inhabited?
The detection of methane and ozone is evidence that there is a biosphere on Earth that produces both gases.
“LIFE” could even determine that there is some form of life on Earth.
In the future, the technology will be applied to other exoplanets in the hope of finding habitable or even inhabited exoplanets.
Sascha Quanz emphasizes: “Our study shows that next-generation space missions can assess whether nearby temperate Earth-like exoplanets are habitable or even inhabited.”
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