JWST is the pinnacle of our astronomical aspirations, the most sensitive telescope ever built by human hands. But can this feat of engineering resolve a question which has haunted us since the dawn of civilization are we alone? So let's explore whether JWST could detect signatures of biology on another world, and if so under what conditions? Sponsored by Ground News, head to https://ground.news/coolworlds

Written and presented by Prof David Kipping, edited by Jorge Casas. Thanks to Ryan MacDonald (   / @martiancolonist  ) for checking over some technical points.

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::References::
► Schwieterman et al., 2018, Exoplanet Biosignatures: A Review of Remotely Detectable Signs of Life, Astrobiology, 18, 6: https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.05791
► Kozakis et al. 2022, Is ozone a reliable proxy for molecular oxygen? I. The O2O3 relationship for Earthlike atmospheres, A&A, 665, 156: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.09415
► Leung et al. 2022, Alternative Methylated Biosignatures I: Methyl Bromide, A Capstone Biosignature, ApJ, 938, 6: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.07393
► Lin et al. 2021, Differentiating Modern and Prebiotic Earth Scenarios for TRAPPIST1e: Highresolution Transmission Spectra and Predictions for JWST, MNRAS, 505, 3562: https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.09319
► Fauchez et al. 2019, Impact of Clouds and Hazes on the Simulated JWST Transmission Spectra of Habitable Zone Planets in the TRAPPIST1 System, ApJ, 887, 194: https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.08596
► Kaltenegger et al. 2020, The White Dwarf Opportunity: Robust Detections of Molecules in Earthlike Exoplanet Atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope, ApJ, 901, 1: https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.07274
► Limbach et al. 2022, A New Method for Finding Nearby White Dwarf Exoplanets and Detecting Biosignatures, MNRAS, 517, 2622: https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.12914

::Music::
Music licensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via Creative Commons (CC) Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., or with permission from the artist
► 00:00 Hill All Flesh Is as the Grass [https://open.spotify.com/track/1WuMK4...]
► 03:57 & 14:59 Hill The Great Alchemist [https://open.spotify.com/track/3PAx36...]
► 08:01 & 18:50 Outside the Sky Trillions
► 11:57 Hill We Are Unceasing Beings [https://open.spotify.com/track/3Tnhaw...]
► 25:18 Joachim Heinrich Stjärna

::Chapters::
00:00 Introduction
01:00 A Biosignature Primer
11:00 Sponsorship
12:21 TRAPPIST1e
19:12 White Dwarfs
25:29 A Fool's Hope
27:05 Outro and credits

#JWST #AlienLife #Astrobiology