JWST Could Detect Extraterrestrial Life Near Dying Stars Within a Decade

We may find a planet that's capable of supporting life within the decade. Researchers have discovered that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) set to be launched in 2018 could conceivably detect oxygen and water in the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet after only a few hours of observation time.

Although you might think that an Earth-like planet orbiting a sun-like star would be the most likely combination for finding life on another planet, that's not the case. Instead, a white dwarf, which is a dead star that will eventually cool down and fade away, is the most likely candidate for supporting habitable planets.

Now, researchers may be able to find those planets in 2018. The scientists used a simulated spectrum in order to test if JWST would be able to detect life-giving oxygen, water and methane in the atmosphere of a planet. The synthetic spectrum replicated an inhabited planet similar to Earth orbiting a white dwarf. It turned out that, in fact, the telescope would be able to detect the planet.

White dwarfs are more likely to house Earth-like planets due to an abundance of heavy elements on the surface of the stars. These heavy elements suggest that rocky planets, like our Earth, orbit a significant faction of them. In fact, researchers estimate that a survey of 500 of the closest white dwarfs would result in spotting one or more habitable planets.

It's also easier to actually see planets around these white dwarfs. In order to detect planets, researchers watch for a dimming of the white dwarf's light as the planet crosses in front of it. This dimming is relatively easy to spot when it comes to a white dwarf, but much harder to see when an Earth-like planet orbits a normal star.

"The difficulty lies in the extreme faintness of the signal, which is hidden in the glare of the 'parent' star," said Dan Maoz, one of the researchers, in a press release. "The novelty of our idea is that, if the parent star is a white dwarf whose size is comparable to that of an Earth-sized planet, that glare is greatly reduced, and we can now realistically contemplate seeing the oxygen biomarker."

Once the JWST is launched in 2018, it will be ideal for hunting out signs of life on other planets. Whether or not it will find anything remains to be seen.

The findings are published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.