Astronomers claim to have discovered the strongest signs yet of possible life on a planet 700 trillion miles away from Earth.
The scientists from the University of Cambridge used a mid-infrared camera from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to watch exoplanet K2-18b, a planet that is just not in our solar system and is eight times the dimensions of Earth, orbiting a star 124 light years away.
The planet was first discovered in 2017 by Canadian astronomers while searching through ground-based telescopes in Chile, based on the Recent York Times. The “hycean planet,” meaning it’s home to an abundance of a life-signifying molecule, is on the centre of a recent study published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The astronomers detected the chemical fingerprints of gases within the alien planet’s atmosphere which are only produced by biological processes on Earth.
The 2 gases — dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl disulphide (DMDS) — involved within the observations of K2-18b are generated on Earth by living organisms, primarily microbial life comparable to marine phytoplankton, commonly often called algae.
This implies the planet could also be teeming with microbial life, researchers said.
“These are the primary hints we’re seeing of an alien world that’s possibly inhabited,” Nikku Madhusudhan of the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy said in a press conference on Tuesday. “It’s in nobody’s interest to say prematurely that now we have detected life.
“This can be a transformational moment within the search for all times beyond the solar system, where now we have demonstrated that it is feasible to detect biosignatures in potentially habitable planets with current facilities. We’ve got entered the era of observational astrobiology.”
Madhusudhan, the lead creator of the Astrophysical Journal Letters study, noted that there are efforts underway trying to find signs of life in our solar system, including environments that may be conducive to life in places like Mars, Venus and various icy moons.
The researchers usually are not announcing the invention of actual living organisms but fairly a possible biosignature — an indicator of a biological process — and say the findings must be viewed cautiously.
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The University of Cambridge’s findings have reached the “three-sigma” level of statistical significance, meaning there may be a 0.3 per cent probability that they occurred by likelihood, based on the report. To succeed in the accepted classification for scientific discovery, the report stated that observations would should cross the “five-sigma threshold,” meaning there could be “a below 0.000006 per cent probability they occurred by likelihood.”
Other astronomers have urged caution on the brand new findings until they may be verified by other groups.
“The wealthy data from K2-18 b make it a tantalizing world,” Christopher Glein, principal scientist on the Space Science Division of the Southwest Research Institute in Texas, told Reuters. “These latest data are a worthwhile contribution to our understanding. Yet, we have to be very careful to check the information as thoroughly as possible. I sit up for seeing additional, independent work on the information evaluation starting as soon as next week.”
“Unless we see E.T. waving at us, it’s not going to be a smoking gun,” Glein told the Recent York Times.
“It’s not nothing,” Johns Hopkins University planetary scientist Stephen Schmidt told the outlet. “It’s a touch. But we cannot conclude it’s habitable yet.”
Ryan MacDonald on the University of Michigan told Recent Scientist that the “recent JWST observations don’t offer convincing evidence that DMS or DMDS are present in K2-18b’s atmosphere.”
“We’ve got a boy-who-cried-wolf situation for K2-18b, where multiple previous three-sigma detections have completely vanished when subject to closer scrutiny. Any claim of life beyond Earth must be rigorously checked by other scientists, and unfortunately many previous exciting claims for K2-18b haven’t withstood these independent checks.”
Madhusudan also urged caution, saying, “First we want to repeat the observations two to thrice to make sure that the signal we’re seeing is strong and to extend the detection significance.” He desired to make sure that the percentages of a statistical fluke are below roughly one in 1,000,000.
“Second, we want more theoretical and experimental studies to make sure that whether or not there may be one other abiotic mechanism [one not involving biological processes] to make DMS or DMDS in a planetary atmosphere like that of K2-18b. Regardless that previous studies have suggested them [as] robust biosignatures even for K2-18b, we want to stay open and pursue other possibilities,” Madhusudhan said.
Earlier observations by JWST, which was launched in 2021 and have become operational in 2022, had identified methane and carbon dioxide in K2-18 b’s atmosphere, the primary time that carbon-based molecules were discovered within the atmosphere of an exoplanet in a star’s habitable zone.
“The one scenario that currently explains all the information obtained thus far from JWST, including the past and present observations, is one where K2-18 b is a hycean world teeming with life,” Madhusudhan said. “Nevertheless, we have to be open and proceed exploring other scenarios.”
When asked about possible intelligent life on K2-18b in the course of the press conference, Madhusudhan said, “We won’t find a way to reply this query at this stage. The baseline assumption is of easy microbial life.”
He said he and his team estimate that between 16 and 24 hours of further observations with JWST could help them reach the five-sigma level.
“Earlier theoretical work had predicted that prime levels of sulphur-based gases like DMS and DMDS are possible on hycean worlds,” Madhusudhan said. “And now we’ve observed it, consistent with what was predicted. Given every thing we find out about this planet, a hycean world with an ocean that’s teeming with life is the scenario that most closely fits the information now we have.”
“Our work is the place to begin for all of the investigations which are now needed to substantiate and understand the implications of those exciting findings,” said co-author Savvas Constantinou, also from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy.
This isn’t the primary time astronomers claimed to have detected alien life.
In September 2020, astronomers said they detected a chemical within the Venusian clouds that likely could only be produced by organic life. Two telescopes detected the presence of phosphine within the clouds over Venus, based on a study published in Nature and one other submitted to the journal Astrobiology. The chemical only comes from factories and microbes living in oxygen-free environments on Earth, and there is no such thing as a other known natural process for producing it.
Which means there’s no way the chemical should exist in this manner except “from the presence of life” or through some little bit of never-before-seen chemistry, based on the study authors.
“I used to be just stunned,” said Jane Greaves, the lead study creator and a professor at Cardiff University in the UK.
The invention was not proof of life, however it was a superb lead that might help astronomers narrow the scope on what form of aliens they must be in search of on Venus, based on Greaves.
— With files from Global News and Reuters
