Selection effects in JWST transmission spectroscopy and HWO reflected-light imaging may cause the first biosignature detection to arise from an atypical planet rather than a representative Earth analog.
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3 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.
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2026 3representative citing papers
Nominal HWO resolutions suffice to detect key biosignatures across Archean to Phanerozoic Earth atmospheres, with O3 enabling indirect low-O2 detection and NIR resolution preventing CO2-CO false positives.
LIFE can constrain atmospheric H2O abundances from roughly 10^{-3} to 1 bar surface pressure on Earth-like exoplanets for certain vertical profiles, providing a potential proxy for surface oceans, but cannot detect water below 10^{-6} bar or precisely characterize the highest abundances.
citing papers explorer
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The First Remotely Detected Biosignature May Not Be the Most Common: Implications for JWST and HWO
Selection effects in JWST transmission spectroscopy and HWO reflected-light imaging may cause the first biosignature detection to arise from an atypical planet rather than a representative Earth analog.
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The effect of spectral resolution on biosignature detection via reflected light observations of the Earth through time
Nominal HWO resolutions suffice to detect key biosignatures across Archean to Phanerozoic Earth atmospheres, with O3 enabling indirect low-O2 detection and NIR resolution preventing CO2-CO false positives.
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The Goldilocks problem for detecting water in terrestrial planets: Constraining water abundances in the mid-IR with LIFE
LIFE can constrain atmospheric H2O abundances from roughly 10^{-3} to 1 bar surface pressure on Earth-like exoplanets for certain vertical profiles, providing a potential proxy for surface oceans, but cannot detect water below 10^{-6} bar or precisely characterize the highest abundances.