Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Feature
  • Published:

JWST’s quest for indications of life on planets and exoplanets

Nature Astronomy volume 6, pages 5–7 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Given the recent revelations concerning the potential discovery of phosphine in its atmosphere, one of the most obvious starting places to hunt for biosignatures is Venus. Unfortunately, JWST’s orbital configuration won’t allow the spacecraft to observe our neighbour; but thankfully, the Solar System provides no shortage of targets to aim for instead, such as Mars.

Causing controversy since it was first reported in 2003, the detection of methane in Mars’s atmosphere remains of much interest owing to the biological significance of this hydrocarbon molecule. On Earth, the globally averaged concentration of methane in our atmosphere is around 1,850 parts per billion by volume (ppbv)1, of which more than 90% is produced via biogenesis2. Mars, on the other hand, has varying levels depending on the instrument that measured it and on the time of day and year it was detected. For example, ground-based telescopes have measured anywhere from about 10 ± 3 (ref. 3) to about 33 ppbv of methane in the atmosphere of Mars2, whereas the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer on board the Mars Express orbiter detected 15.5 ± 2.5 ppbv of methane4. On Mars’s surface, NASA’s Curiosity rover meanwhile has detected methane many times over the course of its mission with readings reaching as high as 21 ppbv (ref. 5). To add to the mystery, other instruments failed to observe methane altogether6,7.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Artist’s conception of JWST.

NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez

Fig. 2: Three scientists who will be searching for pre-biotic, biotic and biomarker molecules with JWST.

(right panel) Bret Hartman

References

  1. Jackson, R. B. et al. Environ. Res. Lett. 15, 071002 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Mumma, M. et al. Science 323, 1041–1045 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Krasnopolsky, V. A., Maillard, J. P. & Owen, T. C. Icarus 172, 537–547 (2004).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Formisano, V., Atreya, S., Encrenaz, T., Ignatiev, N. & Giuranna, M. Science 306, 1758–1761 (2004).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Witze, A. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01981-2 (2019).

  6. Korablev, O. et al. Nature 568, 517–520 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Montmessin, F. et al. Astron. Astrophys. 650, A140 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Giuranna, M. et al. Nat. Geosci. 12, 326–332 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Losa-Adams, E. et al. Nat. Astron. 5, 936–942 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Dunham, E. C., Dore, J. E., Skidmore, M. L., Roden, E. E. & Boyd, E. S. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 118, e2007051117 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Waite, J. H. et al. Science 356, 155–159 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Affholder, A. et al. Nat. Astron. 5, 805–814 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Gialluca, M. T., Robinson, T. D., Rugheimer, S. & Wunderlich, F. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 133, 054401 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Batalha, N. E. et al. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 129, 064501 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Freelance science writer, Yorkshire, UK

    Kerry Hebden

Authors
  1. Kerry Hebden
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kerry Hebden.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hebden, K. JWST’s quest for indications of life on planets and exoplanets. Nat Astron 6, 5–7 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01584-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01584-w

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing