Analytical chemistry and extra-terrestrial life
discovered early in the 19 th century but only with the discovery of nitrogen on Jupiter’s moon was the chance of life on Titan explored. Nitrogen is a key constituent of biological molecules such as amino acids and nucleic acids. So a planet with a nitrogen-methane atmosphere may have the right molecular precursors of life, or microbes themselves (Owen, 1982). Although we have also already used infrared spectroscopy to find methane on the exoplanet HD 189733b, most of the planets that the Kepler mission (the goal of which was to find earth-sized planets orbiting other stars) looked at were too far away to detect gases in their atmosphere. Projects such as the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission are now surveying exoplanets that pass in front of their stars (transiting) and then these planets are now studied by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which has the capacity to use infrared spectroscopy to study the atmosphere of exoplanets (Seager, 2014). JWST has already found carbon dioxide on a exoplanet named WASP – 39b, which has been hailed as a major breakthrough. In conclusion, analytical chemistry is a vital part of the future of astronomy. By not only using in situ techniques such as mass spectrometry and gas chromatography to look at samples of planets for bio- signatures, but also using many different types of spectroscopy to evaluate the composition of other planets’ atmospheres to find biosignature gases that could lead us to a world which could host life or is currently hosting life. With NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope detecting that one i n five sun-like stars should host an Earth- sized exoplanet in the star’s habitable zone (Seager, 2014), and the future ExoMars rover missions that will be launched before the end of the decade, infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry will become more vital as a way to find signs of habitability in the universe.
References
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