# The Mid-InfraRed Exo-planet CLimate Explorer MIRECLE: Exploring the Nearest M-Earths Through Ultra-Stable Mid-IR Transit and Phase-Curve Spectroscopy

## TL;DR

MIRECLE is a proposed 2-meter mid-infrared space telescope designed to characterize terrestrial exoplanets in habitable zones, aiming to identify atmospheric compositions, potential biosignatures, and assess habitability through transit and phase-curve spectroscopy.

## Contribution

This paper introduces the MIRECLE mission concept, a novel approach for efficiently surveying and characterizing exoplanet atmospheres in the mid-infrared range.

## Key findings

- Potential to detect biosignatures in bright targets
- Ability to distinguish between airless and atmospherically rich worlds
- Comprehensive survey of terrestrial exoplanets in habitable zones

## Abstract

This White Paper presents a mission concept called MIRECLE - the Mid-InfraRed Exoplanet CLimate Explorer. With a moderately sized aperture of 2 meters, broad wavelength coverage (4 - 25 um), and next generation instruments, MIRECLE will be capable of efficiently characterizing a statistically significant sample of terrestrial planets, many of which will be in their host stars's habitable zones. Spectroscopic characterization of terrestrial atmospheres will provide constraints for the distribution of planets with tenuous vs. substantial atmospheres, on the inner and outer edges of the habitable zone, and climate models to assess the potential for habitability. For the few brightest targets, the detection of specific combinations of molecules would provide evidence of biosignatures. For all other targets, this comprehensive survey would filter out the airless, desiccated, or lifeless worlds, thus providing a subset of potentially habitable worlds ready for in-depth atmospheric characterization using a larger aperture telescope.