Chirality is considered a universal, agnostic biosignature that is independent of a planet’s biochemistry. Researchers have recently characterized the chiral signatures of photosynthetic pigments associated with primitive phototrophs that have dominated the surface of our planet for nearly 80% of its history. Such phototrophs could potentially blanket the surface of rocky habitable exoplanets and generate circular polarization signals as strong as ~1%, suggesting that they might be remotely detectable and relevant to life detection missions.
The POC for this publication is William Sparks