The work of VPL PI Prof. Victoria Meadows was recently featured in AAS Nova. Her work, along with VPL researchers Andrew Lincowski and Jake Lustig-Yaeger, analyzes the feasibility of searching for signs of habitability and life in the atmospheres of the TRAPPIST-1 planets using the JWST. Their results reveal that an oxygenic-photosynthetic biosphere may be difficult to detect with JWST; however, a methanogenic biosphere on an Earth-like planet may be more accessible through the detection of a combination of outgassed CO2 in the presence of methanogenically generated CH4.
Work of VPL PI Prof. Victoria Meadows Featured in AAS Nova
