The Importance of the Upper Atmosphere to CO/O$_2$ Runaway on Habitable Planets Orbiting Low-Mass Stars

TL;DR

This study re-evaluates the potential for abiotic O$_2$ and CO buildup on habitable planets orbiting M-dwarf stars, emphasizing the importance of atmospheric modeling details in interpreting biosignatures.

Contribution

It demonstrates that previous models underestimated the atmospheric top height, leading to overestimated O$_2$ and CO levels, and clarifies the conditions under which O$_2$ remains a reliable biosignature.

Findings

Photochemical O$_2$ remains a trace gas on habitable M-dwarf planets.

Previous models underestimated atmospheric top height, affecting O$_2$ and CO predictions.

False positives for O$_2$ and O$_3$ as biosignatures are still possible, requiring further study.

Abstract

Efforts to spectrally characterize the atmospheric compositions of temperate terrestrial exoplanets orbiting M-dwarf stars with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are now underway. Key molecular targets of such searches include O$_2$ and CO, which are potential indicators of life. Recently, it was proposed that CO$_2$ photolysis generates abundant ($\gtrsim0.1$ bar) abiotic O$_2$ and CO in the atmospheres of habitable M-dwarf planets with CO$_2$-rich atmospheres, constituting a strong false positive for O$_2$ as a biosignature and further complicating efforts to use CO as a diagnostic of surface biology. Importantly, this implied that TRAPPIST-1e and TRAPPIST-1f, now under observation with JWST, would abiotically accumulate abundant O$_2$ and CO, if habitable. Here, we use a multi-model approach to re-examine photochemical O$_2$ and CO accumulation on planets orbiting M-dwarf stars. We show that photochemical O$_2$ remains a trace gas on habitable CO$_2$-rich M-dwarf planets, with earlier predictions of abundant O$_2$ and CO due to an atmospheric model top that was too low to accurately resolve the unusually-high CO$_2$ photolysis peak on such worlds. Our work strengthens the case for O$_2$ as a biosignature gas, and affirms the importance of CO as a diagnostic of photochemical O$_2$ production. However, observationally relevant false positive potential remains, especially for O$_2$'s photochemical product O$_3$, and further work is required to confidently understand O$_2$ and O$_3$ as biosignature gases on M-dwarf planets.