Context. Homochirality is a generic and unique property of life on Earth and is considered a universal and agnostic biosignature. Homochirality induces fractional circular polarization in the incident light that it reflects. Because this circularly polarized light can be sensed remotely, it can be one of the most compelling candidate biosignatures in life detection missions. While there are also other sources of circular polarization, these result in spectrally flat signals with lower magnitude. Additionally, circular polarization can be a valuable tool in Earth remote sensing because the circular polarization signal directly relates to vegetation physiology. Aims. While high-quality circular polarization measurements can be obtained in the laboratory and under semi-static conditions in the field, there has been a significant gap to more realistic remote sensing conditions. Methods. In this study, we present sensitive circular spectropolarimetric measurements of various landscape elements taken from a fast-moving helicopter. Results. We demonstrate that during flight, within mere seconds of measurements, we can differentiate (S∕ N > 5) between grass fields, forests, and abiotic urban areas. Importantly, we show that with only nonzero circular polarization as a discriminant, photosynthetic organisms can even be measured in lakes. Conclusions. Circular spectropolarimetry can be a powerful technique to detect life beyond Earth, and we emphasize the potential of utilizing circular spectropolarimetry as a remote sensing tool to characterize and monitor in detail the vegetation physiology and terrain features of Earth itself.

We provide a proof of the technical feasibility of LOUPE, the first integral-field snapshot spectropolarimeter, designed to monitor the reflected flux and polarization spectrum of Earth. These are to be used as benchmark data for the retrieval of biomarkers and atmospheric and surface characteristics from future direct observations of exoplanets. We perform a design tradeoff for an implementation in which LOUPE performs snapshot integral-field spectropolarimetry at visible wavelengths. We used off-the-shelf optics to construct a polarization modulator, in which polarization information is encoded into the spectrum as a wavelength-dependent modulation, while spatial resolution is maintained using a micro-lens array. The performance of this design concept is validated in a laboratory setup. Our proof-of-concept is capable of measuring a grid of 50 x 50 polarization spectra between 610 and 780 nm of a mock target planet - proving the merit of this design. The measurements are affected by systematic noise on the percent level, and we discuss how to mitigate this in future iterations. We conclude that LOUPE can be small and robust while meeting the science goals of this particular space application, and note the many potential applications that may benefit from our concept for doing snapshot integral-field spectropolarimetry.

Context. The atmospheric and surface characterization of rocky planets is a key goal of exoplanet science. Unfortunately, the measurements required for this are generally out of reach of present-day instrumentation. However, the planet Mercury in our own solar system exhibits a large exosphere composed of atomic species that have been ejected from the planetary surface by the process of sputtering. Since the hottest rocky exoplanets known so far are more than an order of magnitude closer to their parent star than Mercury is to the Sun, the sputtering process and the resulting exospheres could be orders of magnitude larger and potentially detectable using transmission spectroscopy, indirectly probing their surface compositions. Aims. The aim of this work is to search for an absorption signal from exospheric sodium (Na) and singly ionized calcium (Ca⁺) in the optical transmission spectrum of the hot rocky super-Earth 55 Cancri e. Although the current best-fitting models to the planet mass and radius require a possible atmospheric component, uncertainties in the radius exist, making it possible that 55 Cancri e could be a hot rocky planet without an atmosphere. Methods. High resolution (R ~ 110 000) time-series spectra of five transits of 55 Cancri e, obtained with three different telescopes (UVES/VLT, HARPS/ESO 3.6 m and HARPS-N/TNG) were analysed. Targeting the sodium D lines and the calcium H and K lines, the potential planet exospheric signal was filtered out from the much stronger stellar and telluric signals, making use of the change of the radial component of the orbital velocity of the planet over the transit from -57 to +57 km s^-1. Results. Combining all five transit data sets, we detect a signal potentially associated with sodium in the planet exosphere at a statistical significance level of 3σ. Combining the four HARPS transits that cover the calcium H and K lines, we also find a potential signal from ionized calcium (4.1σ). Interestingly, this latter signal originates from just one of the transit measurements - with a 4.9σ detection at this epoch. Unfortunately, due to the low significance of the measured sodium signal and the potentially variable Ca⁺ signal, we estimate the p-values of these signals to be too high (corresponding to + are estimated to be at a level of ~2.3 × 10^-3 and ~7.0 × 10^-2 respectively, relative to the stellar spectrum. Conclusions. If confirmed, the 3σ signal would correspond to an optically thick sodium exosphere with a radius of 5 _R, which is comparable to the Roche lobe radius of the planet. The 4.9σ detection of Ca⁺ in a single HARPS data set would correspond to an optically thick Ca⁺ exosphere approximately five times larger than the Roche lobe radius. If this were a real detection, it would imply that the exosphere exhibits extreme variability. Although no formal detection has been made, we advocate that probing the exospheres of hot super-Earths in this way has great potential, also knowing that Mercury's exosphere varies significantly over time. It may be a fast route towards the first characterization of the surface properties of this enigmatic class of planets.