Biosignatures: On Earth and Beyond: Priya Shah Hasan at the OAE’s 5th Shaw-IAU Workshop
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Biosignatures: On Earth and Beyond
This was a talk given at the 5th Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education, organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE, http//astro4edu.org).
This article is a review of biosignatures that are used to study habitability and/or the presence of past or present life in our solar system and exoplanets. We discuss the evolution of biosignatures through the period of life on Earth. For the Earth, undisputed biosignatures are only detectable for about a quarter of the Earth’s past. In other periods, detectable biosignatures are not totally reliable and can only determine a statistical likelihood estimate of life on Earth. We also discuss results obtained from various habitability experiments in our solar system. We conclude with a focus on the importance of the study of biosignatures in the new era of exoplanet research with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope and the era of extremely large ground-based telescopes.
About Priya Shah Hasan:
I grew up in Camborne in Cornwall on a small farm, and much of my youth was spent surfing, playing sport or finding interesting ways to injure myself. At school I always enjoyed complex problems, although I spent most of my early life trying to deny this or cover it up! I never owned a telescope and had no idea what a degree or PhD really was, but I did have a lot of books about space and space exploration. Strangely, I never wanted to be an astronaut, or work out how the rockets worked. However, I was always fascinated at how a huge range of environments across our universe could be realised maintaining the same underlying principles-Physics! Of course, I really would not have phrased it like that back then, probably more like: hmm planets and stars are cool. I went to school at Pool School and Community College, and completed my A-levels there too, before taking a year out working in a DIY store and travelling within Europe. At University, in Exeter, I really started to realise (towards the end of the course) that I was in fact a whole and actual geek. It took a while to come to terms with, but I gradually realised the potential for Physics, and astrophysics in particular to provide a steady stream of unsolved, hugely complicated problems! I completed an Mphys degree specialising in Surface Plasmon Polariton working with Prof. B Barnes, then took at year out working for 6 months at the University of Exeter Sports Park then travelling for the remainder of the year to Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. After this I completed a PhD on stellar ages with Prof. T. Naylor, before working with Prof. T. Harries on radiative transfer. Finally, I found a home working on planetary atmospheres with Prof. I Baraffe, before becoming a lecturer and leading my own group in this field.
About the 5th Shaw-IAU Workshop:
This year’s Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education focuses on two themes: one special practical astronomy education topic and one scientific topic. The special topic is astronomy education outside the classroom, looking at how astronomy can be taught in a diverse range of environments such as science centers, planetaria and youth clubs. The scientific topic is planetary atmospheres, both in the solar system and exoplanets as well as our own Earth. The workshop was organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (http://astro4edu.org/). More details can be found on: https://astro4edu.org/shaw-iau/5th-shaw-iau-workshop/schedule/
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