Solid grains ejected from terrestrial exoplanets as a probe of the abundance of life in the Milky Way

Abstract

Searching for extrasolar biosignatures is important to understand life on Earth and its origin. Astronomical observations of exoplanets may find such signatures, but it is difficult and may be impossible to claim unambiguous detection of life by remote sensing of exoplanet atmospheres. Here, another approach is considered: collecting grains ejected by asteroid impacts from exoplanets in the Milky Way and then travelling to the Solar System. The optimal grain size for this purpose is around 1 μm, and though uncertainty is large, about 105 such grains are expected to be accreting on Earth every year, which may contain biosignatures of life that existed on their home planets. These grains may be collected by detectors placed in space, or extracted from Antarctic ice or deep-sea sediments, depending on future technological developments.