Nitrous oxide (also known as laughing gas) — a product of microbial nitrogen metabolism — is a compelling exoplanet biosignature gas with distinctive spectral features in the near- and mid-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Schwieterman et al. conducted a systematic photochemical and spectral investigation of nitrous oxide as an exoplanet biosignature and place upper limits on the nitrous oxide abundances and detectability...
