LOUPE: observing Earth from the Moon to prepare for detecting life on Earth-like exoplanets

Klindžić, Dora; Stam, Daphné; Snik, Frans; Hoeijmakers, H. J.; Willebrands, Michelle; Karalidi, Theodora; Pallichadath, Vidhya; Dijk, C. N. van; Esposito, Marco

doi:10.1098/rsta.2019.0577

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(85 reference statements)

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“…There are many issues to be discussed [2178][2179][2180][2181][2182][2183][2184][2185][2186][2187][2188][2189][2190][2191][2192][2193], including how to discriminate the elusive science signals from pervasive low radio frequency and terahertz foregrounds, and handling the abrasive role of lunar dust. One can add imaging via mega-telescopes in dark and cold polar craters and making use of the seismic stability of the Moon for deployment of GW telescopes, using technology that dates back to, and goes far beyond, the Apollo-era era seismometers.…”

Section: Lunar Astronomymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cosmology Intertwined: A Review of the Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Associated with the Cosmological Tensions and Anomalies

Abdalla,

Abellán,

Aboubrahim

et al. 2022

Preprint

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This White Paper has been prepared to fulfill SNOWMASS 2021 requirements and it extends the material previously summarized in the four Letters of Interest [1][2][3][4]. The Particle Physics Community Planning Exercise (a.k.a. SNOWMASS ) is organized by the Division of Particles and Fields of the American Physical Society, and this is an effort to bring together the community of theoretical physicists and cosmologists and identify promising opportunities to address the questions described.This White Paper was initiated with the aim of identifying the opportunities in the cosmological field for the next decade, and strengthening the coordination of the community. It is addressed to identifying the most promising directions of investigation, and rather than attempting a long review of the current status of the whole field of research, it focuses on the upcoming theoretical opportunities and challenges described. The White Paper is a collaborative effort led by Eleonora Di Valentino and Luis Anchordoqui, and it is organized in the topics listed below, each of them coordinated by the scientists indicated (alphabetical order):

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Section: Lunar Astronomymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cosmology Intertwined: A Review of the Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Associated with the Cosmological Tensions and Anomalies

Abdalla,

Abellán,

Aboubrahim

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…As Earth is the only known planet to host life, as well as technology, observations of Earth can serve as proxies for exoplanet observations. This idea of studying Earth as an example of an inhabited exoplanet includes examining Earth's spectral biosignature [e.g., 179,180,181] as well as observing Earth's radio spectrum as reflected from the moon [e.g., 182,183]. Future Earth observing can provide opportunities to further constrain the detectability of Earth's technosignatures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Searching for technosignatures in exoplanetary systems with current and future missions

Haqq-Misra,

Schwieterman,

Socas-Navarro

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Technosignatures refer to observational manifestations of technology that could be detected through astronomical means. Most previous searches for technosignatures have focused on searches for radio signals, but many current and future observing facilities could also constrain the prevalence of some non-radio technosignatures. This search could thus benefit from broader participation by the astronomical community, as contributions to technosignature science can also take the form of negative results that provide statistically meaningful quantitative upper limits on the presence of a signal. This paper provides a synthesis of the recommendations of the 2020 TechnoClimes workshop, which was an online event intended to develop a research agenda to prioritize and guide future theoretical and observational studies technosignatures. The paper provides a high-level overview of the use of current and future missions to detect exoplanetary technosignatures at ultraviolet, optical, or infrared wavelengths, which specifically focuses on the detectability of atmospheric technosignatures, artificial surface modifications, optical beacons, space engineering and megastructures, and interstellar flight. This overview does not derive any new quantitative detection limits but is intended to provide additional science justification for the use of current and planned observing facilities as well as to inspire astronomers conducting such observations to consider the relevance of their ongoing observations to technosignature science. This synthesis also identifies possible technology gaps with the ability of current and planned missions to search for technosignatures, which suggests the need to consider technosignature science cases in the design of future mission concepts.

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“…ix Test the retrieval algorithms with light curves of Earth observed from afar, e.g. using an instrument like LOUPE (Klindžić et al 2021) on the Moon or on a distant spacecraft.…”

Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exoplanet Cartography using Convolutional Neural Networks

Meinke,

Stam,

Visser

2022

Preprint

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Context. In the near-future, dedicated telescopes will observe Earth-like exoplanets in reflected parent-starlight, allowing their physical characterization. Because of the huge distances, every exoplanet will remain an unresolved, single pixel, but temporal variations in the pixel's spectral flux contain information about the planet's surface and atmosphere.Aims. We test convolutional neural networks for retrieving a planet's rotation axis, surface and cloud map from simulated single-pixel observations of flux and polarization light curves. We investigate the influence of assuming that the reflection by the planets is Lambertian in the retrieval while in reality their reflection is bidirectional, and of including polarization in retrievals.Methods. We simulate observations along a planet's orbit using a radiative transfer algorithm that includes polarization and bidirectional reflection by vegetation, desert, oceans, water clouds, and Rayleigh scattering in six spectral bands from 400 to 800 nm, at various levels of photon noise. The surface-types and cloud patterns of the facets covering a model planet are based on probability distributions. Our networks are trained with simulated observations of millions of planets before retrieving maps of test planets.Results. The neural networks can constrain rotation axes with a mean squared error (MSE) as small as 0.0097, depending on the orbital inclination. On a bidirectionally reflecting planet, 92% of ocean facets and 85% of vegetation, desert, and cloud facets are correctly retrieved, in the absence of noise. With realistic amounts of noise, it should still be possible to retrieve the main map features with a dedicated telescope. Except for face-on orbits, a network trained with Lambertian reflecting planets, yields significant retrieval errors when given observations of bidirectionally reflecting planets, in particular, brightness artefacts around a planet's pole.

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LOUPE: observing Earth from the Moon to prepare for detecting life on Earth-like exoplanets

Cited by 16 publications

References 42 publications

Cosmology Intertwined: A Review of the Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Associated with the Cosmological Tensions and Anomalies

Cosmology Intertwined: A Review of the Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Associated with the Cosmological Tensions and Anomalies

Searching for technosignatures in exoplanetary systems with current and future missions

Exoplanet Cartography using Convolutional Neural Networks

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