From BBC
Scientists have found new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.
A Cambridge team studying the atmosphere of a planet called K2-18b has detected signs of molecules which on Earth are only produced by simple organisms.
This is the second, and more promising, time chemicals associated with life have been detected in the planet’s atmosphere by Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
But the team and independent astronomers stress that more data is needed to confirm these results.
The lead researcher, Prof Nikku Madhusudhan, told me at his lab at Cambridge University’s Institute of Astronomy that he hopes to obtain the clinching evidence soon.
“This is the strongest evidence yet there is possibly life out there. I can realistically say that we can confirm this signal within one to two years.”
K2-18b is two-and-a-half times the size of Earth and is 700 trillion miles, or 124 light years, away from us – a distance far beyond what any human could travel in a lifetime.
JWST is so powerful that it can analyse the chemical composition of the planet’s atmosphere from the light that passes through from the small red Sun it orbits.
The Cambridge group has found that the atmosphere seems to contain the chemical signature of at least one of two molecules that are associated with life: dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl disulphide (DMDS). On Earth, these gases are produced by marine phytoplankton and bacteria.
Prof Madhusudhan said he was surprised by how much gas was apparently detected during a single observation window.
“The amount we estimate of this gas in the atmosphere is thousands of times higher than what we have on Earth,” he said.
“So, if the association with life is real, then this planet will be teeming with life,” he added.
Prof Madhusudhan went further: “If we confirm
