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SUMMARY:Prospects for detecting biomarkers in exoplanetary impact ejecta -
  Philippe Thebault (Observatoire de Paris)
DTSTART:20161123T160000Z
DTEND:20161123T170000Z
UID:TALK67929@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ed Gillen
DESCRIPTION:Remotely assessing the presence of life on an extrasolar plane
 t is one of the great challenges of modern astrophysics. So far\, most eff
 orts have been dedicated to looking for bio-signatures in planetary atmosp
 heres (presence of out-of-equilibrium species like 02\, 03 or methane) or 
 reflectance spectra (« red edge » due to vegetation cover). I will prese
 nt a recent study that has assessed an alternative way of detecting life\,
  by looking for biomarkers in surface and sub-surface material ejected aft
 er a violent collision on an exoplanet. We consider impacts by cometary of
  asteroidal bodies on Earth\, Mars and Lunar-sized targets and evaluate\, 
 for each scenario\, the amount of material that can escape without being r
 eprocessed or melted. We estimate the collisional evolution of the produce
 d dust and its detectability by current and future instruments. We explore
  the possibility for spectroscopic analysis and the identification of calc
 ite\, silica and reflected light from micro-organisms.
LOCATION:Martin Ryle Seminar Room\, Kavli Institute
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