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Complex molcules key to alien life detection?


Claire.

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We could detect alien life by finding complex molecules

How can we search for life on other planets when we don’t know what it might look like? One chemist thinks he has found an easy answer: just look for sophisticated molecular structures, no matter what they’re made of. The strategy could provide a simple way for upcoming space missions to broaden the hunt.

Read more: New Scientist

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Chemical complexity, or even molecular weight might well be valid indicators of life, even life as we do not know it. This will probably require actually getting at and chemically analyzing the materials in question.  

It's also been discussed that spectroscopic indications of both methane and oxygen in the atmosphere of a distant planet could point to life, even at stellar distances.   

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