Early Earth, Mars and Venus as Exoplanets (EASE)

To fully understand exoplanets we have to take a look at the (in)habitable worlds that are closest to home: Earth, Venus and Mars. Why did the Earth become a habitable planet? Despite being very similar in origin ans size, Earth and Venus ended up on divergent evolutionary pathways that lead to our planet becoming a habitable and Venus to become an arid desert under a thick atmosphere. Mars shows evidence of liquid water early in its history, but now the planet has a very thin atmosphere with pressure not sufficient for liquid water to exist. Why did Mars and Venus evolve so differently? Can JWST show us our past in other systems? And what can “failed” Earths tell us about the conditions about habitability?

Answering these questions requires to study the evolution of Earth-like worlds, volcanism, their atmospheres and spectral fingerprints. The EASE project will combine cutting edge numerical models and the revolutionary growing list of spectra from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to look at Earth, Venus and Mars and their exoplanetary analogues.