2023/08/02 by A. Balbi, Amedeo Balbi, Adam Frank · 1 voice
Chemistry · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrobiology #Astrophysics #Atmosphere (unit) #Atmospheric oxygen #Biology #Biosphere #Botany #Bottleneck #Chemistry #Computer science #Ecology #Environmental science #Exoplanet #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Isotope Analysis in Ecology #Limiting oxygen concentration #Meteorology #Multicellular organism #Oxygen #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Partial pressure #Photosynthesis #Physics #Planet #astro-ph.EP #physics.ao-ph #physics.pop-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41550-023-02112-8
arxiv published 2023/08/02 · openalex publication_date 2023/12/28 · arxiv updated 2023/12/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
As oxygen is essential for respiration and metabolism for multicellular organisms on Earth, its presence may be crucial for the development of a complex biosphere on other planets. And because life itself, through photosynthesis, contributed to creating our oxygen-rich atmosphere, oxygen has long been considered as a possible biosignature. Here we consider the relationship between atmospheric oxygen and the development of technology. We argue that only planets with substantial oxygen partial pressure (p\rm O2) will be capable of developing advanced technospheres and hence technosignatures that we can detect. But open-air combustion (needed, for example, for metallurgy), is possible only in Earth-like atmospheres when p\rm O2≥ 18%. This limit is higher than the one needed to sustain a complex biosphere and multicellular organisms. We further review other possible planetary atmospheric compositions and conclude that oxygen is the most likely candidate for the evolution of technological species. Thus, the presence of p\rm O2≥ 18% in exoplanet atmospheres may represent a contextual prior required for the planning and interpretation of technosignature searches.