• Corpus ID: 51831413

SET-E: The Search for Extraterrestrial Environmentalism

@article{Montet2016SETETS,
  title={SET-E: The Search for Extraterrestrial Environmentalism},
  author={Benjamin T. Montet and Ryan A. Loomis},
  journal={arXiv: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics},
  year={2016}
}

• B. Montet, R. Loomis
• Published 31 March 2016
• Physics, Geology
• arXiv: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

There is currently no evidence for life on any known exoplanet. Here, we propose a form of "galactic
anthropology" to detect not only the existence of life on transiting exoplanets, but also the existence of environmental movements. By observing the planet's atmosphere over long time baselines, the destruction and recovery of a hole in an exoplanet's ozone layer may be observable. While not readily detectable for any one system with JWST, by binning together observations of hundreds of systems we can finally determine the occurrence rate of environmental movements on Earthlike planets in the
galaxy, a number we term η_(Green Earth).