Revealing bio-lines of exoplanets by Fourier spectroscopy

E. N. Ribak; E. Schwartz; S. G. Lipson

doi:10.1117/12.2057372

24 July 2014 Revealing bio-lines of exoplanets by Fourier spectroscopy

E. N. Ribak, E. Schwartz, S. G. Lipson

Proceedings Volume 9146, Optical and Infrared Interferometry IV; 91460B (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2057372
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2014, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

Earth-like extra-solar planets have luminosities which are many orders of magnitude less than those of their parent star. We propose and test a method for identifying molecular spectral bands in light from such a planet by looking at an offcenter part of an infrared Fourier transform interferogram. This results in superior sensitivity to narrow spectral bands, which are expected in the planet’s spectrum, but are absent in the parent star. We support this by astronomical observations to illustrate the method in the visible. The results suggest that this method is applicable to searches for planet biolines, and for differentiating between narrow lines and wide lines in other astronomical scenarios.

Citation Download Citation

E. N. Ribak, E. Schwartz, and S. G. Lipson "Revealing bio-lines of exoplanets by Fourier spectroscopy", Proc. SPIE 9146, Optical and Infrared Interferometry IV, 91460B (24 July 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2057372

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