ReviewAstrobiology2018
Exoplanet Biosignatures: A Review of Remotely Detectable Signs of Life.
Review in Astrobiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed.
- The role of minerals in prebiotic evolution: Implications for identifying worlds with the potential for life's origin.Fundamental research · 2026Review
- Proto-Biosignatures and Planetary Geochemical Metabolism: A Thermodynamic Screening Model of Prebiotic Geochemical Organization.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Is a constitutive red-shift an advantage for oxygenic photosynthesis under M dwarf starlight? Insights fromFEMS microbes · 2026Article
- Exo-Geoscience Perspectives Beyond Habitability.Space science reviews · 2026Review
- Evolution and Observable Properties of Rocky Planet Atmospheres.Space science reviews · 2026Review
- Euhabitability: A New Term to Aid in the Search for Life in Addition to the Habitable Zone Framework.Space science reviews · 2026Review
- Bifurcations and phase transitions in the origins of life.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Origins of life: the possible and the actual.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Prospects for detecting signs of life on exoplanets in the JWST era.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Modelling exo-biospheres for biosignature predictions.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Identification of Cryptic Beetle Species in the Cyclocephala Complex Using Reflectance Spectroscopy.Neotropical entomology · 2025Article
- Life on Venus?Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Resilience of Metabolically Active Biofilms of a Desert Cyanobacterium Capable of Far-Red Photosynthesis Under Mars-like Conditions.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- An Informational-Entropic Approach to Exoplanet Characterization.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Completing the Spectral Mosaic of Chloromethane by Adding the CHDMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Energy-ordered resource stratification as an agnostic signature of life.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Biological, Equilibrium and Photochemical Signatures of C, N and S Isotopes in the Early Earth and Exoplanet Atmospheres.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Predicting the diversity of photosynthetic light-harvesting using thermodynamics and machine learning.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Characterization of Amino Acid Nanolayers and Their Interactions under Simulated Planetary Conditions.ACS earth & space chemistry · 2025Article
- Terrestrial dimethyl sulfide: Template for astrobiology.Bioinformation · 2025Article
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In the coming years and decades, advanced space- and ground-based observatories will allow an unprecedented opportunity to probe the atmospheres and surfaces of potentially habitable exoplanets for signatures of life. Life on Earth, through its gaseous products and reflectance and scattering properties, has left its fingerprint on the spectrum of our planet. Aided by the universality of the laws of physics and chemistry, we turn to Earth's biosphere, both in the present and through geologic time, for analog signatures that will aid in the search for life elsewhere. Considering the insights gained from modern and ancient Earth, and the broader array of hypothetical exoplanet possibilities, we have compiled a comprehensive overview of our current understanding of potential exoplanet biosignatures, including gaseous, surface, and temporal biosignatures. We additionally survey biogenic spectral features that are well known in the specialist literature but have not yet been robustly vetted in the context of exoplanet biosignatures. We briefly review advances in assessing biosignature plausibility, including novel methods for determining chemical disequilibrium from remotely obtainable data and assessment tools for determining the minimum biomass required to maintain short-lived biogenic gases as atmospheric signatures. We focus particularly on advances made since the seminal review by Des Marais et al. The purpose of this work is not to propose new biosignature strategies, a goal left to companion articles in this series, but to review the current literature, draw meaningful connections between seemingly disparate areas, and clear the way for a path forward. Key Words: Exoplanets-Biosignatures-Habitability markers-Photosynthesis-Planetary surfaces-Atmospheres-Spectroscopy-Cryptic biospheres-False positives. Astrobiology 18, 663-708.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.