We recently discussed the different types of worlds that the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is expected to find that might have noticeable biosignatures. However, no matter how good the instrumentation on board the observatory is, the data it collects will be useless if scientists don't know how to interpret it. A paper explaining what data they need to collect before analyzing HWO data was authored by Niki Parenteau, a research biologist at NASA, and her co-authors, and is now available on the arXiv preprint server.
That data wishlist can be broken down into three main categories. First is one that can be thought of as "computational astrochemistry." This focuses on an abundance of gases that are lacking parameters in one form or another that would allow researchers to determine if they show up in the data. For example, plenty of potentially interesting gases, such as methyl halides and organosulfurs, have never been quantified to determine how much of it would need to be present in the atmosphere before HWO can pick it up.
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