By probing chemical processes observed in the Earth's hot mantle, Cornell scientists have started developing a library of basalt-based spectral signatures that not only will help reveal the composition of planets outside of our solar system but could demonstrate evidence of water on those exoplanets.
"When the Earth's mantle melts, it produces basalts," said Esteban Gazel, professor of engineering. Basalt, a gray-black volcanic rock found throughout the solar system, are key recorders of geologic history, he said.
"When the Martian mantle melted, it also produced basalts. The moon is mostly basaltic," he said. "We're testing basaltic materials here on Earth to eventually elucidate the composition of exoplanets through the James Webb Space Telescope data."
Gazel and Emily First, a former Cornell postdoctoral researcher and now an assistant professor at Macalester College in Minnesota, are authors of "Mid-infrared Spectra for Basaltic Rocky Exoplanets," on November 14 in Nature Astronomy.
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