Japanese scientists urged their colleagues to look for new biomarkers of extraterrestrial life in space, in addition to oxygen, Discovery reports.
The full report of a study by a team of scientists from the National Institute of Natural Science in Japan has been published in Scientific Reports. Discovery gives a short version, the essence of which boils down to the statement: the presence of oxygen in the planet's atmosphere does not guarantee the emergence of life on it.
According to researchers, oxygen cannot be a reliable sign of the existence of organisms. Although it is generally believed that it is a byproduct of life. The study showed that the interaction of titanium oxide with water is also capable of producing oxygen, filling the atmosphere with it without the participation of organisms.
In this regard, Japanese scientists urged colleagues to look for new biomarkers in space. Now attention is focused on the search for life on exoplanets, the atmosphere of which is similar in composition to Earth. It is assumed that at least some plants exist there.
However, scientists have calculated: to create the same volume of oxygen as in the Earth's atmosphere, it is required that titanium covers 0.05 percent of the surface. For comparison, on our planet, this figure is 0.0000005 percent.
The study's authors say that the likelihood of life on exoplanets with oxygen is much lower than it is believed. However, they expressed the hope that one day with the help of the latest telescopes in space, it will be possible to detect life.