I

 

wouldn't get to excited.

Is this a hint of life on another world, 

or just a lot of hot air?

"An ocean world that's teeming with microbes — and who knows what other kinds of life — is currently the best explanation for some chemical signatures that the James Webb Space Telescope has spotted in the atmosphere of a distant planet."

(Thats hardly life.)

"That's according to Nikku Madhusudhan of the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, who called his team's new findings "astounding."

"Madhusudhan, despite his enthusiasm, noted that 

the detection of these gases 

needs to be confirmed 

with more telescope observations. 

And other astronomers are skeptical."

"I think this is one of those situations where extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence," says Laura Kreidberg, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany who was not part of the research team. "I'm not sure we're at the extraordinary evidence level yet."

"She says scientists are still learning how to use this powerful new space telescope to analyze the make-up of alien atmospheres by studying the tiny amount of starlight that filters through them."

"I want to emphasize this is an insanely difficult measurement," says Kreidberg.

"Even if the chemical signal they saw is confirmed, the researchers say, scientists will still have to figure out if these molecules could potentially be produced on this planet by previously unknown processes that don't involve life."

(Long way to go yet.)

"We should be cautious. I want that to be front and center," says Holmberg. "Any claim of life on another planet requires a lot of justification, and I don't think we're there yet."

"K2-18b orbits a cool dwarf star that lies about 124 light years away, in the constellation of Leo. The planet is found in the "Goldilocks zone" around the star, where temperatures are not too hot and not too cold to have liquid water and, presumably, possible life."

(Not the right kind of star would be one of the first problems. It has to be a star like ours, any bigger? To much radiation, any smaller? Not enough heat etc. )

"When researchers first used the James Webb Space Telescope to study this planet a couple of years ago, they reported detecting methane and carbon dioxide."

"Intriguingly, they also saw hints of dimethyl sulfide. This sulfur-based molecule is seen as a potential indicator of life because on Earth, it's only made by living things such as ocean phytoplankton."

"The team announced this possible detection of dimethyl sulfide in 2023, but when other scientists followed up, it didn't pan out."

"Still, he said, "we're not currently claiming that it is due to life."

"But because we are operating so close to the limits of our capabilities," says Schwieterman, "we are going to have these problems of interpretation and potential false positives."

"And they will likely become more common in the years ahead, as more planets get studied in detail."

"For most planets where we think there's a chance that they're habitable, we're still at a much earlier stage, just trying to figure out if they have any atmosphere at all, let alone what that atmosphere is made out of or whether it's showing signs of life," says Kreidberg."

"When it comes to planets beyond our solar system, she says, the field is entering a time when researchers need to let "the observational data sort of lead us in a way that we really need our theory and our laboratory work to catch up with."

"That's why she thinks this new finding about planet K2-18b is "interesting and it's certainly something that we need to keep following through. But I'm not running out of my front door crying, 'Aliens!'"

Exactly.

Finding "gas signatures" like they did previously, 

doesnt equate to finding life.

Now comes the satanic bot driven click bait articles en masse.