Birmingham scientists playing key role in the search for life on other planets

Birmingham scientists are playing a key role in the search for life on other planets. 

Researchers from the University of Birmingham are part of a team that has devised a new way of identifying habitable planets. The team, which also includes boffins from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have discovered measuring the amount of carbon dioxide is key.  

If a planet has less carbon dioxide in its atmosphere than those close to it, then there’s a real change water is on the surface.  That’s because carbon dioxide is dissolved in oceans. And where there is water, there is life. 

Before the ground-breaking research, scientist sought water in far off planets by a “glint” method: star light reflecting off water. 

What's been said about the study?

Amaury Triaud, professor of exoplanetology at the University of Birmingham, who co-led the study, said: “It is fairly easy to measure the amount of carbon dioxide in a planet’s atmosphere.  

“By comparing the amount of CO2 in different planets’ atmospheres, we can use this new habitability signature to identify those planets with oceans, which make them more likely to be able to support life.  For example, we know that initially, the Earth’s atmosphere used to be mostly CO2, but then the carbon dissolved into the ocean and made the planet able to support life for the last four billion years or so.” 

The work may also help our own battle to combat climate change. 

Amaury Triaud added: “This helps gather context for the climate crisis we face on Earth to find out at which point the levels of carbon make a planet uninhabitable. For example, Venus and Earth look incredibly similar, but there is a very high level of carbon in Venus’ atmosphere. There may have been a past climatic tipping point that led to Venus becoming uninhabitable.” 

Now the team will study a range of planets’ carbon dioxide levels, identify which have oceans and then list the ones most likely to harbour life.