Publication Abstracts
Kiang 2017
, 2017: Biosignatures of exoplanets. Capeia, 2017, Apr. 20.
There was a time during Western civilization when musing about worlds other than Earth could be life-threatening. In 1600 Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake as a heretic for claiming, amongst other things, that the fixed stars were in fact suns with planets moving around them, and furthermore, that lifeforms similar to those on Earth might exist on these planets. Although these ideas were not the result of scientific observation but rather of philosophical reflexions, Giordano Bruno is today recognized as the father of the idea of exoplanets. The study of planets revolving around distant stars has become one of the most thrilling disciplines in astronomy. As it did 400 years ago, this subject touches on the most profound questions of mankind, including the uniqueness of the planet Earth and even our own uniqueness as an intelligent species. As always in astronomy distance is an issue. While it requires a lot of patience to reach the planets within our own solar system, direct visits to exoplanets will not be feasible in the foreseeable future. Is there an alternative approach to find a second Earth? Nancy Kiang outlines what kind of information we can extract from the light that reaches us from distant exoplanets and how we could use it to answer the question: is life out there?
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BibTeX Citation
@article{ki06200a,
author={Kiang, N. Y.},
title={Biosignatures of exoplanets},
year={2017},
journal={Capeia},
volume={2017},
pages={Apr. 20},
}
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RIS Citation
TY - EJOUR ID - ki06200a AU - Kiang, N. Y. PY - 2017 TI - Biosignatures of exoplanets JA - Capeia JO - Capeia VL - 2017 SP - Apr. 20 UR - https://beta.capeia.com/planetary-science/2017/04/13/biosignatures-of-exoplanets ER -
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