The Color of Habitability

Abstract

From life on other planets to virtual classrooms this thesis spans a wide array of research topics all based on how we see other worlds. Our understanding of everything from moon phases, the planets in our Solar System, and exoplanet atmospheres come from our interpretation of light and one day, our knowledge of light will be used as evidence for the discovery of life on another planet. In the time before we scattered rovers, landers, and brave souls across the Solar System we only knew of the planets and moons from the light they reflected from the Sun back to us. We are in much the same situation with exoplanets today. Our telescopes can gather the light from distant worlds but they are too far out of reach to confirm our observations with in-situ measurements. Soon we will be able to gather light from even smaller exoplanets and eventually Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting in their star's habitable zone. As a reference guide to these upcoming observations what better place to compare to than our own Solar System. What we've done is take measurements of planets in our own Solar System and treat them as exoplanets to determine how different surface types can be differentiated. The result is a database of the spectra, geometric albedos, and color of 19 Solar System objects for use as an exoplanetary field guide. A step beyond the field guide is a way to explore worlds only physics and our imaginations are limited by. By using computer models, we can create thousands of planets to determine the physical and chemical stability of any environment. One parameter domain of interest is the role of surface color on a planet's habitability. Different materials have unique thermal properties that either cool or heat a surface depending on their color and the light that hits them. Dark oceans absorb light well and heat up while white sand is highly reflective and keeps cool...

arXiv commentCornell University Ph.D. Thesis - 179(161) pages, 32 figures, 8 tables, 8 color plates, 259 references

References in corpus (33)

• A new extensive library of PHOENIX stellar atmospheres and synthetic spectra
• Habitable Zones Around Main-Sequence Stars: New Estimates
• A continuum from clear to cloudy hot-Jupiter exoplanets without primordial water depletion
• Clouds in the atmosphere of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b
• Habitable Zones Around Main-Sequence Stars: Dependence on Planetary Mass
• New Grids of ATLAS9 Model Atmospheres
• Stabilizing Cloud Feedback Dramatically Expands the Habitable Zone of Tidally Locked Planets
• State of the Field: Extreme Precision Radial Velocities
• Increased insolation threshold for runaway greenhouse processes on Earth like planets
• Spectral Evolution of an Earth-Like Planet
• Combining high-dispersion spectroscopy (HDS) with high contrast imaging (HCI): Probing rocky planets around our nearest neighbors
• The inner edge of the habitable zone for synchronously rotating planets around low-mass stars using general circulation models
• Water loss from terrestrial planets with CO2-rich atmospheres
• Effect of UV Radiation on the Spectral Fingerprints of Earth-like Planets Orbiting M dwarfs
• Impact of atmospheric refraction: How deeply can we probe exo-Earth's atmospheres during primary eclipse observations?
• Transiting Exoplanet Studies and Community Targets for JWST's Early Release Science Program
• Deciphering Spectral Fingerprints of Habitable Extrasolar Planets
• Nonphotosynthetic Pigments as Potential Biosignatures
• Differences in water vapor radiative transfer among 1D models can significantly affect the inner edge of the habitable zone
• Spectral features of Earth-like planets and their detectability at different orbital distances around F, G, and K-type stars
• The Origins Space Telescope
• Bright optical dayside emission from extrasolar planet CoRoT-2b
• A Possible Aeronomy of Extrasolar Terrestrial Planets
• Is the Pale Blue Dot unique? Optimized photometric bands for identifying Earth-like exoplanets
• Colors of extreme exo-Earth environments
• Reflected Light Curves, Spherical and Bond Albedos of Jupiter- and Saturn-like Exoplanets
• Photometric Properties of Ceres from Telescopic Observations using Dawn Framing Camera Color Filters
• Hydrohalite Salt-albedo Feedback Could Cool M-dwarf Planets
• Climate sensitivity to ozone and its relevance on the habitability of Earth-like planets
• Decrease in hysteresis of planetary climate for planets with long solar days
• Atmospheres and UV Environments of Earth-like Planets Throughout Post-Main Sequence Evolution
• Tohoku-Hiroshima-Nagoya planetary spectra library: A method for characterizing planets in the visible to near infrared
• The Importance of Multiple Observation Methods to Characterize Potentially Habitable Exoplanets: Ground- and Space-Based Synergies