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

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

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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.

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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

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  1. Freelance science writer, Yorkshire, UK

    Kerry Hebden

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  1. Kerry Hebden
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Correspondence to Kerry Hebden.

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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

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