Conditions for habitability from galaxies to planets
PIs
Laura Silva (INAF-OATs), Francesca Perrotta (SISSA)
Members
Amedeo Balbi (Uni. Tor Vergata, Roma)
Daniela Billi (Uni. Tor Vergata, Roma)
Erica Bisesi (INAF-Ts)
John Robert Brucato (INAF-Arcetri)
José A. Caballero (CAB CSIC-INTA, Madrid, Spain)
Marika Giulietti (IRA/INAF, Bologna)
Gian Luigi Granato (INAF-Ts)
Valeria Grisoni (INAF-Ts)
Gayathri Gururajan (SISSA, IFPU)
Jost von Hardenberg (Politecnico di Torino)
Andrea Lapi (SISSA)
Nicoletta La Rocca (Uni. Padova)
Umberto Maio (INAF-Ts)
Michele Maris (INAF-Ts)
Marcella Massardi (IRA/INAF, Bologna)
Giuseppe Murante (INAF-Ts)
Massimiliano Parente (SISSA)
Francesca Perrotta (SISSA)
Antonello Provenzale (CNR/IGG, Pisa)
Cinthia Ragone-Figueroa (INAF & IATE, Córdoba, Argentina)
Laura Silva (INAF-Ts)
Emanuele Spitoni (INAF-Ts)
Martina Torsello (SISSA)
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The IFPU institute reunites INAF, SISSA, ICTP, UniTs, is close to OGS, and provides a center to take advantage of and foster new collaborations within the multidisciplinary environment that characterizes the scientific institutes of the Trieste area. Moreover, members of our team are already involved in collaborative projects not only among these different institutes, but also with other INAF institutes, and with climatologists and biologists from CNR/IGG, PoliTo, Tor Vergata, UniPD. We have already organized IFPU activities on subjects in the fields of exo-climates and chemical evolution of galaxies, and we plan to organize further events to foster discussions, ideas, collaborations with colleagues from different disciplines.
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Summary
Understanding how the chemical evolution of the Universe might have led to the emergence of life is a complex topic, due to the many scales at which structures interact with each other, and to the different processes occurring in the organization of matter. Addressing such a complexity requires gathering a plurality of disciplines and methods -from cosmology to astrochemistry, planetary formation, geology and climatology, biology- as prerequisites for investigating life in a broad sense. Astrobiology – the science studying the origin, development and distribution of life in the Universe starts from the Earth as the currently only known example of a habitable world to encompass distant exoplanets and backward conditions.
Our schematic research lines are:
Galaxy chemical evolution, astrochemistry and habitability
(a) Interplay between large-scale evolution of cosmic structures and the small-scale characterization of habitability, tackled with cosmological N-body+hydro simulations and semi-analytical models, and models for the chemical evolution of the Universe, to statistically determine where and when general habitability conditions can be found in galaxies like the MW.
(b) Impact of high-energy events, such as SNe explosions, on the evolution of life on Earth.
(c) Dependence of planetary habitability on the atmospheric and internal compositions as inherited from the star forming molecular clouds.
(d) ALMA observations of the richness of molecules in the ISM – from H2 and H2O to organic molecules of prebiotic interest, and related theoretical computations of chemical reaction networks accounting for the abundance of elements and dust.
Climate models for planetary habitability
(a) By means of 1D climate models, such as our EOS-ESTM – suited for multi-parameter exploration and big data analysis, and 3D Global Climate Models – such as PLASIM, modeling surface and atmospheric conditions of thousands of discovered exoplanets
(b) and investigate the environmental properties at the time when life have originated on Earth (Archean Eon) and possibly on Mars (Noachian Eon).
Origin of Life and Biosignatures
(a) In view of the worldwide space missions’ efforts envisaged towards future searches of biosignatures on rocky exoplanets, simulations and interpretation of atmospheric spectroscopy.
(b) Stellar evolution properties and star-planet interactions – especially impacts of high-energy radiation fostering prebiotic chemistry but damaging complex organic molecules and cells – related to the potential conditions for the origin of life and long-term persistence of habitability.
(c) Environmental conditions for the survival and efficiency of oxygenic photosynthesis of different species of cyanobacteria and microalgae in the habitable circumstellar zone of solar- and late-type stars.
(d) On in-situ searches of biomarkers on Mars and oxygenic photosynthesis on the early Earth.
Description of the research line
The structures and components of the universe are complicated, with every part interacting among each other, at all scales. The responses and feedbacks of matter among subsystems give rise to random processes and chaotic behaviors. Coherent or locally ordered structures may emerge from complexity.
On disparate scales, necessarily distinct disciplines and investigation techniques are involved. At the intermediate scales, from galaxies to biology (i.e., the realm of ensemble complex behaviors of baryonic matter), it is a struggle to recover the existence, if any, of general laws. These subsystems are part and result of a whole of interactions and sequence of events. The endeavor to uncover a deep understanding of nature requires multidisciplinary exchange of knowledge.
In fact, currently it is not possible to deduce from the fundamental properties of elementary particles alone, the existence and workings of e.g., galaxies, stars, planets, climates, phase diagrams of matter, complex organic molecules, origin of life, darwinian evolution etc, that are also referred to as emerging properties of matter.
These properties are all required in Astrobiology, the par-excellence multidisciplinary research field, that aims to investigate the origin, distribution and development of life in the universe. It necessarily involves a broad perspective, including present and ancient Earth as currently the only known example, but considers altogether the factors that may contribute and allow the physical and chemical conditions for the origin, development, persistence, detection of biological activity in galaxies, in the solar system, and in exoplanets.
In this context, our main aims and current projects are summarized as follows:
Galaxy chemical evolution, Astrochemistry, and Galactic Habitability
(a) the interplay between large scale evolution of cosmic structure and the small scale characterization of habitability is tackled with already partly developed cosmological N-body+hydro simulations and semi-analytical models, including detailed models for the chemical evolution of the Universe (e.g. production of heavy elements in stars and SNe, of dust, of heavy long-lived radioactive elements), to statistically determine where and when general habitability conditions can be found in galaxies like the Milky Way.
(b) these models allow to account, on one side, the evidences that astrophysical events, such as SNe explosions, may have affected the evolution of life on our planet, on the other that planetary structure and geophysical properties, therefore the very existence of planetary atmospheres and habitability, are linked to the composition inherited from the star forming molecular clouds, as is the very same probability of formation of terrestrial planets;
(c) the richness of molecules in the cold phase of the ISM, characterized by an extremely large range of complexity, from H2 and H2O to organic molecules with prebiotic interest, are observationally studied with ALMA and considered in theoretical computations of chemical reaction networks, accounting for the abundance of elements and dust, that can be provided by chemical evolution models.
At the planetary scale, we study the habitability and origin of life conditions in terrestrial planets under different intertwined point of views, but requiring different approaches.
Climate and atmospheric models for planetary habitability
(a) with 1D climate models such as our EOS-ESTM and similar models suited for multi-parameter explorations and big data analysis, and 3D Global Climate Models such as the coupled climate model of intermediate complexity PLASIM, we model potential surface temperature and atmospheric conditions of thousands of discovered exoplanets
(b) with the same models we investigate the still debated and uncertain very early environmental (planetary, atmospheric, and stellar) properties of Earth in the Archean Eon and Mars in the Noachian eon when life has (or may have) originated and left its first signatures
Origin of life, oxygenic photosynthesis and biosignatures
(a) in view of the worldwide space missions efforts envisaged for future searches of biosignatures in rocky exoplanets, comparable theoretical simulations efforts are devoted to interpret atmospheric spectroscopy;
(b) the potential conditions for the origin of life, such as those for the long term persistence of habitability, and the kind of biosignatures to search for, require to consider the evolution properties of the stellar host and star-planet interactions, in particular by accounting for the impact of high energy radiation on atmospheric chemistry, on fostering prebiotic chemistry but, at the same time, damaging complex organic molecules and cells.
(c) modeling of the environmental conditions of early Earth and Mars are performed to investigate the conditions and sites that allowed the origin of life and oxygenic photosynthesis on early Earth; the potential conditions that may have allowed early Mars habitability and the implications for the in-situ searches of biomarkers on Mars; for exploring the range of conditions for oxygenic photosynthesis on other planets.
(d) studies of the survival and efficiency of photosynthesis under different environmental conditions of cyanobacteria, which were able to exploit the main available energy source on Earth. They may have developed in other planets under very different stellar spectral types and planetary conditions, and oxygen is considered the most secure biosignature.
Selected Publications
1 - Silva, L., Vladilo, G., Schulte, P. M., Murante, G., Provenzale, A., 2017, IJAsB, 16, 244,
"From climate models to planetary habitability: temperature constraints for complex life"
2 - Spitoni, E., Gioannini, L., and Matteucci, F., 2017, A&A, 605, “Galactic habitable zone around M and FGK stars with chemical evolution models that include dust”
3 - Murante, G., Provenzale, A., Vladilo, G., Taffoni, G., Silva, L., Palazzi, E., von Hardenberg, J., Maris, M., Londero, E., Knapic, C., Zorba, S., 2020, MNRAS, 492, 2638,
"Climate bistability of Earth-like exoplanets"
4 - Onofri, S., et al., 2020, AsBio, 20, 580, "The Italian National Project of Astrobiology – Life in space – Origin, Presence, Persistence of Life in Space, from Molecules to Extremophiles"
5 - Balbi, A., & Grimaldi, C., 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 117, 21031, "Quantifying the information impact of future searches for exoplanetary biosignatures"
6 - Granato, G.L., Ragone-Figueroa, C., Taverna, A., Silva, L., Valentini, M., Borgani, S., Monaco, P., Murante, G., Tornatore, L., 2021, MNRAS, 503, 511,
"Dust evolution in zoom-in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation"
7 - Simonetti, P., Vladilo, G., Silva, L., Maris, M., Ivanovski, S. L., Biasiotti, L., Malik, M., von Hardenberg, J., 2022, ApJ, 925, 105, "EOS: Atmospheric Radiative Transfer in Habitable Worlds with HELIOS"
8 - Billi D., Napoli A., Mosca C., Fagliarone C., de Carolis R., Balbi A., Scanu M., Selinger V.M., Antonaru L. and Nürnberg D.J. , 2022, Front Microbiol 13, 933404, “Identification of far-red light acclimation in an endolithic Chroococcidiopsis strain and associated genomic features: Implications for oxygenic photosynthesis on exoplanets”
9 - Battistuzzi, M., Cocola, L., Claudi, R., Pozzer, A.C., Segalla A., Simionato D., Morosinotto, T., Luca Poletto L., La Rocca N., 2023, Front. Plant. Sci., Oxygenic photosynthetic responses of cyanobacteria exposed under an M-dwarf starlight simulator: Implications for exoplanet’s habitability
10 - Perrotta, F., Giulietti, M., Massardi, M., Gandolfi, G., Ronconi, T., Zanchettin, M.V., D’ Amato, Q., Behiri, M., Torsello, M., Gabrielli, F., Boco, L., Galluzzi, V., Lapi, A., 2023, ApJ, 952, 90, “The Way of Water: ALMA Resolves H2O Emission Lines in a Strongly Lensed Dusty Star-forming Galaxy at z∼3.1”
11 - Simonetti, P., Vladilo, G., Ivanovski, S., Silva, L., Biasiotti, L., Maris, M., Murante, G., Bisesi, E., Monai, S., 2024, ApJ, 960, 27, “Seasonal Thaws under Mid- to Low-pressure Atmospheres on Early Mars”