Extraterrestrial

James Webb to investigate possible signs of life on exoplanet K2-18b

By T.K. Randall
April 27, 2024

Image: James Webb Space Telescope
Credit: NASA/dima_zel/NOIRLab / CC BY 4.0 (adapted) Situated in orbit around a dwarf star 124 light years from Earth, K2-18b has remained one of the most promising candidates for life since its discovery back in 2015.

Classed as a 'mini-Neptune' with a radius about 2.6 times that of the Earth, this enigmatic world is situated in its star's habitable zone, meaning that liquid water could potentially exist on its surface.

Last year, a lot of excitement ensued after it was discovered that there was dimethyl sulphide in the planet's atmosphere - a gas that, as far as we know, is only produced by life.

"It was a real shock, I had sleepless nights for a week," said study leader Dr Nikku Madhusudhan."That week, I didn't even muster the courage to break it to my own team."

So have the scientists really discovered an alien ocean full of marine life on another world ?

Hoping to help answer that question, the team will be using new data from the James Webb Space Telescope to analyze and scrutinize the findings over the next few months.

Only then will they be able to confirm that they really have found genuine evidence of alien life.

An interview in which Dr. Madhusudhan discusses the discovery can be viewed below.


Source: The Times

Tags: Alien, Extrasolar