What are biosignatures?

Biosignatures are clues that tell us life might be nearby, like a detective leaving fingerprints at the scene of a crime.

Imagine you're playing hide-and-seek in your house, and you leave behind a crumpled piece of paper, some smudged chocolate on the counter, or even a snotty sock under the bed. Those are your biosignatures, tiny clues that tell someone else (like your brother) that you were hiding nearby.

When scientists look for life in space, they search for biosignatures, too! For example, if there’s oxygen in the air of another planet, that might be a clue that something is breathing or growing, just like you need oxygen to stay alive.

Or maybe they find special kinds of chemicals that only appear when living things are around, kind of like how your snack bag smells different after lunchtime. Those are also biosignatures!

So, biosignatures are like little messages from life saying, “Hey, I’m here!”Biosignatures are clues that tell us life might be nearby, like a detective leaving fingerprints at the scene of a crime.

Imagine you're playing hide-and-seek in your house, and you leave behind a crumpled piece of paper, some smudged chocolate on the counter, or even a snotty sock under the bed. Those are your biosignatures, tiny clues that tell someone else (like your brother) that you were hiding nearby.