How to Search for Chemical Biosignatures on Ocean Worlds
Whitepaper #293 submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032. Topics: habitability and water; life and prebiotic organics; ocean worlds
by Peter Willis, M. Fernanda Mora, Aaron Noell, Jessica Creamer, Florian Kehl, Konstantin Zamuruyev, Elizabeth Jaramillo, Miranda Kok, Zuzana Cieslarova, Mauro Sergio Ferreira Santos, Nathan Oborny, Tomas Drevinskas, Mircea Badescu, Jurij Simcic, Sarah Waller, Stojan Madzunkov, Christian Lindensmith, Will Brinckerhoff, Tori Hoehler, Richard Quinn, Antonio Ricco, Sue Lunte, and Alexis Templeton
Published onMar 18, 2021
How to Search for Chemical Biosignatures on Ocean Worlds
We describe how to optimize the search for organic chemical biosignatures during in situ missions to ocean worlds. This requires sample ingestion, liquid sample handing, separation science, and detection using mass spectrometry and other optimized detectors. Inorganic chemical analysis is also essential to provide sample context information.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0)
