Distant planet shows "strongest evidence yet" of potential extraterrestrial life

[midian182]

What just happened? It's one of humanity's oldest questions: are we alone in the universe? A team of researchers has found new evidence that there may be life on a planet two and a half times the size of Earth in another solar system. But don't get too excited just yet.

A team of Cambridge researchers studying the atmosphere of a planet called K2-18b discovered chemical signatures of dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl disulphide (DMDS). The molecules are tied to biological life, produced by marine phytoplankton and bacteria here on Earth.

The amount of this gas detected during an observation window was thousands of times higher than what we have on Earth, lead researcher Prof Nikku Madhusudhan told the BBC.

While the find is exciting, more data is required to ensure the results are accurate.

"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," said Madhusudhan.

The discovery was made by Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It can analyze K2-18b's atmosphere from the light that passes through, emitted by the small red sun that the planet orbits.

Study co-author Mans Holmberg told The Washington Post that the planet could have an atmosphere rich in hydrogen and an ocean deeper than any found on Earth.

Researchers need a five sigma result, or to be 99.9999% certain, to declare a discovery. It means there is a very low probability (around one in 3.5 million) that the observed data could be due to random fluctuations or noise. The latest results are three sigma, which, while 99.7% certain, is not enough. 18 months ago, the team obtained a one sigma result of 68%.

Some scientists warn that even achieving a five sigma result does not conclusively prove that life exists on the planet. Prof Catherine Heymans of Edinburgh University and Scotland's Astronomer Royal said the detected gases could be produced by geological activity on the planet. The Cambridge team is working with other groups to see if DMS and DMDS can be produced by non-living means in the lab.

K2-18b is seven hundred trillion miles, or 120 light-years, away from Earth. It weighs 8.6 times more than our planet and has a diameter 2.6 times larger.

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Distant planet shows "strongest evidence yet" of potential extraterrestrial life

 

[mbk34]

I looked up dimethyl sulphide and found (on Wikipedia) that it was "a component of the smell produced from cooking of certain vegetables (notably maize, cabbage, and beetroot) and seafoods". It's amazing how the planet is so far away yet I already know I don't want to go there. Why can't scientists discover a planet that smells like lasagne or a nice risotto?

 

[acoustis]

I looked up dimethyl sulphide and found (on Wikipedia) that it was "a component of the smell produced from cooking of certain vegetables (notably maize, cabbage, and beetroot) and seafoods". It's amazing how the planet is so far away yet I already know I don't want to go there. Why can't scientists discover a planet that smells like lasagne or a nice risotto?

Since we’ll never be able to reach it to confirm all the ten sigmas of certainty you might as well claim it smells like the best lasagna you could treat your taste buds with.
I know there is a lit of science and hard research going on in astronomy but it’s all just theory as soon as we leave our Solar system.

I would love to be proven wrong but arguments and theories are not a proof.

 

[Megalomaniac]

At the rate human technology is advancing, I for one, welcome alien invasion.

 

[nnguy2]

Did he used the Professor's Smell-O-Scope?

 

[Vanderlinde]

Even if we where "not" alone it would take quite some years or even hundreds of years to build tech that is capable of getting us through the other side. Space travel is damn complex. At the rate of what we have right now it would take us more then 1000 years of travel to even get to that planet.

 

[Puiu]

I think humanity should focus on finding intelligent life on our own planet. We have seen some signs of it, but so far it has eluded us. We have no real proof of intelligent life on planet Earth yet.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

These clowns make mistakes when the research subject is in their hands and surrounded by equipment worth billions of dollars, imagine believing that they have the slightest chance of pointing out that a planet light years away has life. XD

 

[ZedRM]

These clowns make mistakes when the research subject is in their hands and surrounded by equipment worth billions of dollars, imagine believing that they have the slightest chance of pointing out that a planet light years away has life. XD

Let's see you do any better at all before you call anyone else clowns. Oh and just for reference, the law of probabilities clearly shows that we can NOT be alone in this universe, or in our galaxy or even this 1000 light year neighborhood of stars surrounding us.

Life is out there. We just have to find it.

 

[DanteSmith]

Let's see you do any better at all before you call any else clowns. Oh and just for reference, the law of probabilities clearly shows that we can NOT be alone in this universe, or in our galaxy or even this 1000 light year neighborhood of stars surrounding us.

Life is out there. We just have to find it.

Logic says that it is virtually impossible for anyone to prove this, much less reach such a distant planet.
Conclusion: a waste of time and money, as if there weren't enough problems on this planet already demanding our resources.

 

[ZedRM]

Logic says

Who's logic?

 

[noel24]

I looked up dimethyl sulphide and found (on Wikipedia) that it was "a component of the smell produced from cooking of certain vegetables (notably maize, cabbage, and beetroot) and seafoods". It's amazing how the planet is so far away yet I already know I don't want to go there. Why can't scientists discover a planet that smells like lasagne or a nice risotto?

Smell of canned corn. Its presence in beer represent major failure of Their brewers. Wouldn't want to visit a place that produces something in the likes of Bud Light. "Make K2-18b Great Again? No, thank You!

 

[DrSuess]

Let's see you do any better at all before you call any else clowns. Oh and just for reference, the law of probabilities clearly shows that we can NOT be alone in this universe, or in our galaxy or even this 1000 light year neighborhood of stars surrounding us.

Life is out there. We just have to find it.

Right, there has to be a least one other planet that has at least single celled organisms. Life doesn't mean complex organisms or sentient beings,

 

[Steveb8189]

120 light years is pretty interesting. We should expect a reply in about 40 years from our first radio waves that were transmitted on Earth...

 

[kiwigraeme]

Given the precursors are floating around in space, could well be simple life forms - highly unlikely to progress to tech aliens on such a liquid world

I had seen stories of similar ilk - maybe fom memory about Venus that certain signatures only know source is from life

They will gather more data - someone may an AI model to in 3 years to see other ways to create such a signal etc

Ie really early days

Mars and some moons in Solar system will be analysed for very simple life forms soon enough

Can you create the wheel on a liquid planet , do you need the wheel for advanced tech?

in that formula for advance aliens this if so is still a long way from Bugs in Space - if pans out

 

[p51d007]

Until "ET" pops out of his flying saucer and says HI, I'm not buying it.
For one, if an "alien" were able to travel across the galaxies, we probably
wouldn't like the outcome.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Until "ET" pops out of his flying saucer and says HI, I'm not buying it.
For one, if an "alien" were able to travel across the galaxies, we probably
wouldn't like the outcome.

2 things - I'm crap with pop culture but is that my little martian ? so oh so cute - but I think a double bluff you are part of the invasion
2ndly - I have seen Zuck lick his eyebrows - not saying he's an alien, but struggles to form emotions on the face

and unannounced third Musks face looks exactly like the bug man in Men in Black - with insects crawling under the surface of his face

 

[mbk34]

Can you create the wheel on a liquid planet , do you need the wheel for advanced tech?

Curious what you'd need a wheel for on a liquid planet?

I, for one, welcome our new cabbage smelling overlords.

 

[Branch]

Conclusion: a waste of time and money, as if there weren't enough problems on this planet already demanding our resources.

So we should just except our fate and die when our sun goes red giant in 5 billion years?
That's just lazy right there.

 

[amghwk]

Been hearing the same things over and over again. Yet, we STILL haven't faced a single encounter.

Amazing, amongst trillions and maybe more of planets out there, we haven't even encountered a single extraterrestrial lifeform that we can touch or even see with our own eyes.

As the poster in Fox Moulder's room used to depict, "I Want to Believe", but yet to find a concrete evidence to substantiate that. I took want to believe.

One thing is for sure, we don't need an alien invasion to destroy the earth. Our politicians and industrialists and capitalists are already doing it now.

 

[New Day]

Been hearing the same things over and over again. Yet, we STILL haven't faced a single encounter....

And yet such a stink over and around the UAP phenomenon that reaches high into the government, else it would have dissipated.....

 

[ZedRM]

Right, there has to be a least one other planet that has at least single celled organisms. Life doesn't mean complex organisms or sentient beings,

No, I was talking about intelligent life.

 

[Antias]

Been hearing the same things over and over again. Yet, we STILL haven't faced a single encounter.

Amazing, amongst trillions and maybe more of planets out there, we haven't even encountered a single extraterrestrial lifeform that we can touch or even see with our own eyes.

As the poster in Fox Moulder's room used to depict, "I Want to Believe", but yet to find a concrete evidence to substantiate that. I took want to believe.

One thing is for sure, we don't need an alien invasion to destroy the earth. Our politicians and industrialists and capitalists are already doing it now.

Your forgetting the extremely microscopically brief period of time we've been looking for signs of life out there (or even existed for that matter) compared to how so very much longer life could have and should have developed on other worlds.

 

[Win7user]

120 light years away. Yeah, good luck!

 

[Dirtronix]

I think humanity should focus on finding intelligent life on our own planet. We have seen some signs of it, but so far it has eluded us. We have no real proof of intelligent life on planet Earth yet.

Science has ended searching for intelligent life on Earth. All instruments they use point away from Earth.