The Vegetation Red Edge Spectroscopic Feature as a Surface Biomarker

TL;DR

This paper discusses the vegetation red edge as a surface biomarker for Earth-like exoplanets, highlighting its potential detectability through spectroscopic features and recent observational efforts.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of surface biomarkers, focusing on the vegetation red edge, and reviews recent observational studies and methods for detecting this feature in exoplanet spectra.

Findings

Recent Earthshine observations may have detected the vegetation red edge.

Spectroscopic biomarkers can be identified at wavelengths penetrating to planetary surfaces.

Photometric time series in different colors can aid in detecting surface features.

Abstract

The search for Earth-like extrasolar planets is in part motivated by the potential detection of spectroscopic biomarkers. Spectroscopic biomarkers are spectral features that are either consistent with life, indicative of habitability, or provide clues to a planet's habitability. Most attention so far has been given to atmospheric biomarkers, gases such as O2, O3, H2O, CO, and CH4. Here we discuss surface biomarkers. Surface biomarkers that have large, distinct, abrupt changes in their spectra may be detectable in an extrasolar planet's spectrum at wavelengths that penetrate to the planetary surface. Earth has such a surface biomarker: the vegetation "red edge" spectroscopic feature. Recent interest in Earth's surface biomarker has motivated Earthshine observations of the spatially unresolved Earth and two recent studies may have detected the vegetation red edge feature in Earth's hemispherically integrated spectrum. A photometric time series in different colors should help in detecting unusual surface features in extrasolar Earth-like planets.