IJA Author interview: Direct sampling of extrasolar biological materials
3 April 2023
Last update: 03/04/23 11:17
Professor Tomonori Totani of the University of Tokyo, Japan, answers our questions about his latest research article Solid grains ejected from terrestrial exoplanets as a probe of the abundance of life in the Milky Way in the International Journal of Astrobiology (IJA).
What originally drew you to, or excites you about, the search for extrasolar biosignatures?
I have been interested in the origin of life, and published a paper about that in a cosmological context in 2020.
To test this idea, it is important to know the probability of abiogenesis (emergence of life) in a habitable planet. However, it will be difficult to get a conclusive result by remote observations of exoplanet atmospheres.
So I wondered if there is a different approach for more direct sampling of extrasolar biological materials.
What key point do you hope readers take away from your research?
I hope that readers recognize that this is perhaps only way to get direct samples of extrasolar biosignatures. But this is still a rough theoretical idea.
So I hope that many experts in various fields carefully examine this idea and its feasibility.
What might your article mean for astrobiology?
A proposal of a new search method for extrasolar life by direct sampling.
How do you expect astrobiology to develop, in response to your research?
It would be great if world-wide activities start to think and plan for future projects to realize my idea.
What drew you to publish your research in International Journal of Astrobiology (IJA)? Why was it important to you to publish your research open access?
Currently, there are two journals dedicated to astrobiology, namely, IJA and “Astrobiology”. Several years ago I published a paper in “Astrobiology”, and this time I chose IJA.
I could publish this paper as open access without any cost because of the contract between my university and Cambridge Univ. Press.
Editors note: Please check this page to discover if your institution has a similar agreement for open access publishing.
Article Title: Solid grains ejected from terrestrial exoplanets as a probe of the abundance of life in the Milky Way
Author: Tomonori Totani
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S147355042300006X
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