Exogeoscience and Its Role in Characterizing Exoplanet Habitability and the Detectability of Life

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the importance of exogeoscience, an interdisciplinary field combining various sciences, to accurately assess exoplanet habitability and detect life, highlighting the need for increased funding and collaboration.

Contribution

It advocates for developing exogeoscience as a dedicated discipline to improve the reliability of life detection on exoplanets.

Findings

Interdisciplinary approach enhances habitability assessment

Funding and collaboration are crucial for exogeoscience growth

Accurate life detection depends on understanding planetary geology

Abstract

The search for exoplanetary life must encompass the complex geological processes reflected in an exoplanet's atmosphere, or we risk reporting false positive and false negative detections. To do this, we must nurture the nascent discipline of "exogeoscience" to fully integrate astronomers, astrophysicists, geoscientists, oceanographers, atmospheric chemists and biologists. Increased funding for interdisciplinary research programs, supporting existing and future multidisciplinary research nodes, and developing research incubators is key to transforming true exogeoscience from an aspiration to a reality.