Simulating biosignatures from pre-oxygen photosynthesising life on TRAPPIST-1e
dc.contributor.author | Eager-Nash, JK | |
dc.contributor.author | Daines, SJ | |
dc.contributor.author | McDermott, JW | |
dc.contributor.author | Andrews, P | |
dc.contributor.author | Grain, LA | |
dc.contributor.author | Bishop, J | |
dc.contributor.author | Rogers, AA | |
dc.contributor.author | Smith, JWG | |
dc.contributor.author | Khalek, C | |
dc.contributor.author | Boxer, TJ | |
dc.contributor.author | Mak, MT | |
dc.contributor.author | Ridgway, RJ | |
dc.contributor.author | Hébrard, E | |
dc.contributor.author | Lambert, FH | |
dc.contributor.author | Lenton, TM | |
dc.contributor.author | Mayne, NJ | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2024-04-18T09:26:41Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2024-04-29 | |
dc.date.updated | 2024-04-17T19:49:06Z | |
dc.description.abstract | In order to assess observational evidence for potential atmospheric biosignatures on exoplanets, it will be essential to test whether spectral fingerprints from multiple gases can be explained by abiotic or biotic-only processes. Here, we develop and apply a coupled 1D atmosphere-ocean-ecosystem model to understand how primitive biospheres, which exploit abiotic sources of H2 , CO and O2 , could influence the atmospheric composition of rocky terrestrial exoplanets. We apply this to the Earth at 3.8 Ga and to TRAPPIST-1e. We focus on metabolisms that evolved before the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis, which consume H2 and CO and produce potentially detectable levels of CH4 . O2 -consuming metabolisms are also considered for TRAPPIST-1e, as abiotic O2 production is predicted on M-dwarf orbiting planets. We show that these biospheres can lead to high levels of surface O2 (approximately 1–5 %) as a result of CO consumption, which could allow high O2 scenarios, by removing the main loss mechanisms of atomic oxygen. Increasing stratospheric temperatures, which increases atmospheric OH can reduce the likelihood of such a state forming. O2 -consuming metabolisms could also lower O2 levels to around 10 ppm and support a productive biosphere at low reductant inputs. Using predicted transmission spectral features from CH4 , CO, O2 /O3 and CO2 across the hypothesis space for tectonic reductant input, we show that biotically-produced CH4 may only be detectable at high reductant inputs. CO is also likely to be a dominant feature in transmission spectra for planets orbiting M-dwarfs, which could reduce the confidence in any potential biosignature observations linked to these biospheres. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | UK Research and Innovation | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | John Templeton Foundation | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Leverhulme Trust | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Hill Family Scholarship | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Institute of Physics | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Article stae1142 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1093/mnras/stae1142 | |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | ST/R000395/1 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | MR/T040866/1 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | 62220 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | RPG-2020-82 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/135779 | |
dc.identifier | ORCID: 0000-0001-6707-4563 (Mayne, Nathan) | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | Oxford University Press / Royal Astronomical Society | en_GB |
dc.rights | © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. | |
dc.subject | Astrobiology | en_GB |
dc.subject | planets and satellites: Atmosphere | en_GB |
dc.subject | Exoplanets | en_GB |
dc.subject | planets and satellites: terrestrial planets | en_GB |
dc.title | Simulating biosignatures from pre-oxygen photosynthesising life on TRAPPIST-1e | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.date.available | 2024-04-18T09:26:41Z | |
dc.identifier.issn | 0035-8711 | |
dc.description | This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available on open access from Oxford University Press via the DOI in this record | en_GB |
dc.description | Data availability: The model output used for this study will be made available following this work’s acceptance for publication | en_GB |
dc.identifier.eissn | 1365-2966 | |
dc.identifier.journal | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | en_GB |
dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en_GB |
dcterms.dateAccepted | 2024-04-17 | |
dcterms.dateSubmitted | 2024-01-17 | |
rioxxterms.version | AM | en_GB |
rioxxterms.licenseref.startdate | 2024-04-17 | |
rioxxterms.type | Journal Article/Review | en_GB |
refterms.dateFCD | 2024-04-17T19:49:11Z | |
refterms.versionFCD | AM | |
refterms.dateFOA | 2024-05-10T13:18:17Z | |
refterms.panel | B | en_GB |
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's licence is described as © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.