News & media
Keep up with the latest news about LIFE
Latest news
Paper I of the LIFE paper series accepted for publication
March 31, 2022
The first paper in the LIFE paper series was recently accepted for publication in A&A! Quanz et al. 2022 introduce the LIFE initiative and the motivation behind it and perform detection yield estimates for different scenarios and instrument parameters.
Paper III of the LIFE paper series accepted for publication in A&A
March 1, 2022
In Konrad et al. 2022, the LIFE team derived first constraints on the technical requirements for the LIFE telescope in wavelength coverage, spectral resolution, and signal-to-noise ratio.
Paper II of the LIFE paper series accepted for publication
March 1, 2022
In Dannert & Ottiger et al. 2022, the LIFE team describes the process of simulating a LIFE observation with the publicly available LIFEsim tool. We present our methods for signal simulation ( and the subsequent extraction of planets, finding that mid-IR nulling interferometry can indeed provide direct measurements of planetary radii, temperatures and astrometry.
LIFE in the media
Auch das Fehlen von Ausserirdischen bringt uns weiter
[SRF] Derzeit werden erstmals Teleskope entwickelt, die darauf ausgelegt sind, systematisch nach Leben auf anderen Planeten zu suchen. Dazu gehört das Teleskop LIFE, das Forschende an der ETH Zürich planen.
How rare are inhabited worlds in the universe? The LIFE space telescope fleet could find out
[space.com] Still, Angerhausen and colleagues at ETH Zurich wanted to find out how much LIFE could tell us, even if it failed to find biosignatures. The team employed a Bayesian statistical model to find the smallest number of exoplanets LIFE would need to observe.
In the search for life on exoplanets, finding nothing is something too
[phys.org] It is not just about how many planets we observe; it is about asking the right questions and how confident we can be in seeing or not seeing what we are searching for.
Scientists want new mission to seek out alien life
[BBC] Astronomers from ETH Zurich want to send space telescopes to explore exoplanets even further away than Neptune, the planet furthest from the Sun.
Nearby Habitable-Zone Exoplanet May Be a World of Fire and Ice
[Scientific American] Upcoming or proposed missions like NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory and ESA’s Large Interferometer For Exoplanets are meant to directly image potentially habitable worlds.
Die knifflige Suche nach außerirdischem Leben
[Deutschlandfunk] Hoffnungen ruhen bereits auf der nächsten Teleskop-Generation. Das internationale Projekt Large Interferometer for Exoplanets will eine Art Kamera für ferne Exoplaneten bauen.