When searching for extraterrestrial life, we have only one reference: Earth. Our planet is the only planet whose composition and properties we know intimately, from the core to the atmosphere, but it is also the only planet for which we are certain of the existence of life. Therefore, if we want to find something similar beyond our borders, it is important to look inward as well. To achieve this, a team of scientists at the University of Washington created a virtual lifeless world. Using it as a model, they could analyze the more than 6,000 exoplanets found so far and test whether they could indeed harbor living organisms.
A more complete virtual earth. This is actually not the first virtual world model. A core, mantle, and crust already existed. The new model also includes the atmosphere and the surface, as they are two essential areas for studying the presence of life.
uncultivated land. The model these scientists created spans from Earth’s formation 4.5 billion years ago to a future that hasn’t happened yet, 500 million years from now. Initially, Earth’s geological features were taken into account, not life. This is very useful, since in this way you can see the variations related to the inhabited earth. For example, many gases in our atmosphere are the result of the activities of living organisms. Differences between the virtual world and our real planet show signs of life worth looking for.
How it works. The first validations of the model gave very good results. The next step will be to test it with exoplanets, mostly rocky planets that look like ours. Scientists will use data about the planet measured with telescopes, such as the star’s mass, radius, orbit, radiation and stellar composition, and feed it into the model. This will give you a result of what your unpopulated environment should look like. If the result is similar to the atmosphere measured with a space telescope spectrograph, the data would be consistent with a lifeless planet. On the other hand, if there are differences, they could be the result of biological activity, so we would be looking at candidate exoplanets for habitation.
an example. A good example of the inconsistencies that this model may encounter is the simultaneous presence of methane and oxygen. These two gases are destruction Each other, therefore, if they are detected simultaneously in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, it can be assumed that there is some life that is replenishing them. We will encounter a potentially habitable planet.
Telescope designer. Another application of this virtual world is that it can help design space telescopes. In fact, something similar was done to develop the famous Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). Earth was modeled in different geologic eras and what a telescope like HWO would have seen if it had kept its “eyes.” This made it possible to determine data such as the wavelength at which the light reaching it or the level of detail in its images should be measured.
Earth in its different geological phases exhibits different atmospheres and different requirements for detecting life on a telescope. Thanks to these computer models, instruments can be fine-tuned to be able to truly find life when everything is more than just an experiment.
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