Published October 18, 2016
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SET-E: The Search for Extraterrestrial Environmentalism
- Creators
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Montet, Benjamin
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Loomis, Ryan
Abstract
There is currently no evidence for life on any known exoplanet. Here, we propose a form of "galactic anthropology" to detect not only the existence of life on transiting exoplanets, but also the existence of environmental movements. By observing the planet's atmosphere over long time baselines, the destruction and recovery of a hole in an exoplanet's ozone layer may be observable. While not readily detectable for any one system with JWST, by binning together observations of hundreds of systems we can finally determine the occurrence rate of environmental movements on Earthlike planets in the galaxy, a number we term η_(Green Earth).
Additional Information
Submitted on 31 Mar 2016. Thanks to Ian Czekala for reading a draft of this manuscript and providing valuable feedback. We also thank both Sarah's Market and Café and Armando's Pizza and Subs, both of Cambridage, MA, for the beer and sandwiches which enabled much of the work in preparing this manuscript. We would especially like to acknowledge the ozone layer on the Earth for shielding us from UV radiation throughout the preparation of this manuscript.Attached Files
Submitted - 1603.09428v1.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 71193
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20161017-153607347
- Created
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2016-10-18Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-06-02Created from EPrint's last_modified field