Prebiosignatures with the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO)
Sukrit Ranjan, Danica Adams, Michael Wong, Martin Schlecker, Nicholas Wogan, Jessica M. Weber

TL;DR
The paper proposes using the Habitable Worlds Observatory to detect prebiosignature gases, which can test theories of life's origins on planets that are habitable but uninhabited, emphasizing the importance of UV observations.
Contribution
It introduces the novel concept of prebiosignatures for testing abiogenesis theories with HWO and catalogs testable prebiotic environment theories, highlighting the need for UV capabilities.
Findings
Identification of 5 testable prebiotic environment theories
Ranking of theories by detection plausibility
Emphasis on the necessity of UV (NUV) wavelength coverage
Abstract
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) aims to characterize habitable exoplanets in search of signs of life. However, detectable life may be rare, either because abiogenesis is intrinsically contingent and unlikely, or because biospheres may efficiently recycle their products. Here, we explore the potential of HWO to test theories of life in the universe even if detectable life is rare by searching for "prebiosignature gases". Prebiosignatures gases are gases whose detection constrains theories of the evolution of prebiotic (habitable but uninhabited) planets, thereby testing theories of abiogenesis and guiding laboratory investigations of the origin of life. We catalog 5 theories of prebiotic environments that are potentially testable by HWO, identify their observational tests, and rank them by perceived detection plausibility. The prebiosignature paradigm is novel and potentially…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsStellar, planetary, and galactic studies · Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life · Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
