Abstract

Diagnostic potential of the mid-infrared space interferometer LIFE for studying Earth analogues

Highlights

  • We quantify the potential of a mid-infrared space-based mission like LIFE (Large Interferometer for Exoplanets) [1, 2] to detect atmospheric signatures of life in the spectrum of a terrestrial planet at various stages of its evolution

  • Using the minimal requirements for the spectral resolution, the signal to noise ratio, and the wavelength range for LIFE, as discussed in Konrad et al [3], we retrieve the atmospheric structure and composition of thermal spectra of the Earth at various epochs [4]: modern day, the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event (NOE, 0.8 billion years ago), the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE, 2.0 billion years ago), and a prebiotic Earth (3.9 billion years ago)

  • The Bayesian retrieval routine that is currently used is composed by two modules: the forward model petitRADTRANS [9], which applies the radiative transfer equation to produce theoretical spectra given a set of parameters; the parameter estimation module, which applies the Bayesian Inference Nested Sampling method [10] to assess the goodness of the theoretical spectrum when compared to the observed spectrum

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