Space

Sign Of Life On Another Planet? Webb Space Telescope Detects What Scientists Say Is The Strongest Evidence Yet

A new study suggests we could be a step closer to figuring out if alien life is out there, trillions of miles away from Earth. It’s based on observations recorded by the James Webb Space Telescope of an exoplanet called K2-18 b.

This artist’s concept shows what exoplanet K2-18 b could look like based on science data.
(NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI), Science: N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University))

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may have provided scientists with the strongest evidence yet of potential life on a planet beyond our solar system. In a new study published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team from the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy shared what they found.

124 light-years away on a planet named K2-18 b, the Webb telescope observed a “tentative hint,” or you might say traces of two gases, dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS). On Earth those gases are only created by living organisms, mainly marine microbes like phytoplankton or algae.

Spectra of K2-18 b, obtained with Webb’s NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) and NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph), display an abundance of methane and carbon dioxide in the exoplanet’s atmosphere, as well as a possible detection of a molecule called dimethyl sulfide (DMS).
(Illustration: NASA, CSA, ESA, R. Crawford (STScI), J. Olmsted (STScI), Science: N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University)

Scientists consider K2-18 b to be part of what they call hycean worlds, planets that could be entirely covered by oceans. The planet also orbits a red dwarf star that’s smaller than our sun, and it’s in what’s considered a “habitable zone,” a region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface.

Researchers believe that could mean the exoplanet is brimming with microbial life. The lead author of the study, Professor Nikku Madhusudhan told Reuters, "That is a major breakthrough in our search for life beyond the solar system. Not only that there is a chance that the planet can actually be habitable, but what we are finding is that we are demonstrating that it is possible to detect bio-signatures around in atmospheres of such planets around nearby stars with existing facilities. And that's a big breakthrough,”

While this discovery is being described as a “paradigm shift in our search for life” Madhusudhan said we still must proceed with caution, "This is a monumental discovery. It is very important but we also have to be extremely cautious. The reason is that this is one of the biggest questions we have asked as a species in all of science, and we have to deal with it very carefully in that we want it to be really, really robust in establishing whether this is actually life that we have seen."

NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope on December 25, 2021. The agency calls it the largest, most powerful and most complex space telescope ever built. It’s nearly the size of a tennis court, and it folds and unfolds. It was named after James E. Webb, a former NASA administrator.

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