- 1Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands (tim.lichtenberg@rug.nl)
- 2NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
- 3Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 27, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
- 4Dept of Physics and Astronomy, York University, 4700 Keele St, Toronto M3J 1P3, Canada
- 5European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
- 6Weltraumforschung und Planetologie, Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Gesellschaftsstrasse 6, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
- 7Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Canberra 2611, Australia
- 8Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
- 9Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Baden-Wemberg, DE, Germany
- 10Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Thuringia, DE, Germany
- 11Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Geological Sciences, Berlin, Germany
- 12Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern, Gesellschaftsstrasse 6, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
- 13https://LIFE-space-mission.com
The Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE) is a proposed space mission that enables the spectral characterization of the thermal emission of exoplanets in the solar neighborhood. The mission is designed to search for global atmospheric biosignatures on dozens of temperate terrestrial exoplanets and it will investigate the diversity of other worlds, following in the footsteps of the current and next-generation exoplanet space missions, JWST, TESS, CHEOPS, Ariel, and PLATO. Here, we will present an update on the latest concept and science case developments of the LIFE collaboration, focusing on the recent publications Alei et al. (2024) and Cesario et al. (2024). Combined observations in the UV/VIS/NIR+MIR observations with HWO + LIFE would provide synergistic constraints on temperate terrestrial exoplanets, including the atmospheric thermal profile to ~10 K uncertainty, and decisively constrain atmospheric abundances of CO2, H2O, O2, and O3, and weakly constrain CO and CH4 (Alei et al. 2024). Exploration of young planetary systems in nearby young stellar associations with the LIFE mission will enable the rapid (~min to hr) detection of terrestrial protoplanets in their magma ocean phase, both for M and G dwarfs, which would enable constraints on the transition from primary to secondary atmospheres (Cesario et al. 2024). Characterization of the atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets in time enables constraints on prebiotic chemical environments and the near-surface habitability of young and mature terrestrial exoplanets.
References:
Alei, E. et al. (2024). Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE): XIII. The Value of Combining Thermal Emission and Reflected Light for the Characterization of Earth Twins. Astronomy & Astrophysics 689, A245.
Cesario, L. et al. (2024) Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE)-XIV. Finding terrestrial protoplanets in the galactic neighborhood. Astronomy & Astrophysics 692, A172.
How to cite: Lichtenberg, T., Alei, E., Cesario, L., Quanz, S., Glauser, A., Angerhausen, D., Rugheimer, S., Kammerer, J., Fortier, A., Ireland, M., Defrere, D., Linz, H., Noack, L., Braam, M., and Collaboration, L.: The Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE): synergy with HWO & protoplanet detection, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4223, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4223, 2025.
