Publications (6)
Habitability Models for Planetary Sciences
Abel Méndez, Edgard G. Rivera-ValentÃn, Dirk Schulze-Makuch +32
Habitability has been generally defined as the capability of an environment to support life. Ecologists have been using Habitat Suitability Models (HSMs) for more than four decades…
Creation and Evolution of Impact-generated Reduced Atmospheres of Early Earth
Kevin Zahnle, Roxana Lupu, David Catling +1
The origin of life on Earth seems to demand a highly reduced early atmosphere, rich in CH4, H2, and NH3, but geological evidence suggests that Earth's mantle has always been relati…
Geoscience and the Search for Life Beyond the Solar System
Rory Barnes, Anat Shahar, Cayman Unterborn +11
How can scientists conclude with high confidence that an exoplanet hosts life? As telescopes come on line over the next 20 years that can directly observe photons from terrestrial…
When is chemical disequilibrium in Earth-like planetary atmospheres a biosignature versus an anti-biosignature? Disequilibria from dead to living worlds
Nicholas Wogan, David Catling
Chemical disequilibrium in exoplanetary atmospheres (detectable with remote spectroscopy) can indicate life. The modern Earth's atmosphere-ocean system has a much larger chemical d…
Habitability Models for Astrobiology
Abel Méndez, Edgard E. Rivera-ValentÃn, Dirk Schulze-Makuch +31
Habitability has been generally defined as the capability of an environment to support life. Ecologists have been using Habitat Suitability Models (HSMs) for more than four decades…
Rocky Worlds Limited to ~1.8 Earth Radii by Atmospheric Escape During a Star's Extreme UV Saturation
Owen Lehmer, David Catling
Recent observations and analysis of low mass (<10), exoplanets have found that rocky planets only have radii up to 1.5-2. Two general hypotheses exist for t…