Astronomers on the hunt for extraterrestrial life on other planets have discovered the possibility on a faraway planet.
The James Webb Space Telescope picked up signs of molecules that on Earth, are produced only by living organisms.
Despite the findings, a Virginia Tech astrophysicist is skeptical but believes that scientists need to take a closer look.
“It’s worth noting that other scientists are skeptical about the findings, cautioning that there have been false alarms out of K2-18b’s atmosphere before, and that these new observations do not offer convincing evidence that the two molecular signatures are present,” said Nahum Arav, who specializes in determining the influence of super massive black holes on structure formation in the universe.
The exoplanet, called this because it orbits a star not the sun, K2-18b, was discovered in 2015.
“They {astronomers] soon established that it was a promising place to look for life. About eight times as massive as Earth and orbiting a star 124 light years away, the planet sits in the habitable zone of its star, where liquid water can exist on its surface.”
The zone is “just right for liquid water,” Arav said.
In 2023, astronomers looked at K2-18b’s atmosphere in near-infrared light.
“They found a tantalizing hint of a molecule called dimethyl sulphide,” Arav said. “On Earth, this molecule is produced only by living organisms, mainly marine phytoplankton. However, the signs for the molecule on K2-18b were extremely weak.”
Since then, the same team has observed the planet again with different instruments and found a stronger signal for the molecule. They also found a related molecule called dimethyl disulphide. Again, on Earth, it is produced by life.
“Any claim of possible signature of life beyond Earth needs to be verified by other experts analyzing both the same data and hopefully better data sets in the future,” Arav said.
“However, these new results are certainly worth a closer look.”
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Crystal Graham
