2019/05/27 by Manasvi Lingam, Abraham Loeb · 1 voice · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Planetary Science and Exploration #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab3f35
arxiv published 2019/05/27 · openalex publication_date 2019/09/30 · arxiv updated 2019/09/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract We show that the total habitable volume in the atmospheres of cool brown dwarfs with effective temperatures of ∼250–350 K is possibly larger by 2 orders of magnitude than that of Earth-like planets. We also study the role of aerosols, nutrients, and photosynthesis in facilitating life in brown dwarf atmospheres. Our predictions might be testable through searches for spectral edges in the near-infrared and chemical disequilibrium in the atmospheres of nearby brown dwarfs that are either free-floating or within several au of stars. For the latter category, we find that the James Webb Space Telescope may be able to achieve a signal-to-noise ratio of ∼5 after a few hours of integration time per source for the detection of biogenic spectral features in ∼10 3 cool brown dwarfs.