January 3, 2024

Artist's concept of potentially habitable exoplanets (Image courtesy Christine Daniloff, MIT; iStock)

An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” reports a study that examines the possibility of using the measurement of carbon scarcity in the atmosphere of a temperate rocky planet as an indicator of the presence of oceans of liquid water and possible life forms. A team of researchers led by Julien de Wit of MIT and Amaury Triaud of the British University of Birmingham devised a strategy based on the James Webb Space Telescope’s detection capabilities and includes an additional step consisting of the detection of ozone.