We are not alone in this universe. Scientists have found new, but preliminary, evidence that a distant world orbiting another star could harbor life. A Cambridge team studying the atmosphere of a planet called K2-18b has detected signs of molecules that on Earth are only produced by simple organisms.
This is the second, and most promising, time that chemicals linked to life have been detected in the planet's atmosphere by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. But the team and independent astronomers stress that more data is needed to confirm these results.
"We have found evidence for possible biological activity on an exoplanet. That is, we have found signs of biological signature molecules, either dimethyl sulfide (DMS) or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) or both, both of which are uniquely produced by life here on Earth and are predicted to be bio-signatures on planets around other stars as well. And we found the strongest evidence yet of a biological combination, in this case a combination, potentially around another star outside our solar system. This is a major breakthrough in our search for life beyond our solar system," said Nikku Madhusudhan, researcher.
K2-18b is two and a half times larger than Earth and is seven hundred trillion miles away. The Cambridge team has found that the atmosphere appears to contain the chemical signature of at least one of two molecules associated with life, which on Earth are produced by marine phytoplankton and bacteria. Prof Madhusudhan said he was surprised by the amount of gas that was 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 connection with life is true, then this planet will be full of life," the professor confirms. (A2 Televizion)
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