Posted on 04/16/2025 7:27:48 PM PDT by Coronal
The search for life beyond Earth has led scientists to explore many suggestive mysteries, from plumes of methane on Mars to clouds of phosphine gas on Venus. But as far as we can tell, Earth’s inhabitants remain alone in the cosmos.
Now a team of researchers is offering what it contends is the strongest indication yet of extraterrestrial life, not in our solar system but on a massive planet, known as K2-18b, that orbits a star 120 light-years from Earth. A repeated analysis of the exoplanet’s atmosphere suggests an abundance of a molecule that on Earth has only one known source: living organisms such as marine algae.
“It is in no one’s interest to claim prematurely that we have detected life,” Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and an author of the new study, said at a news conference Tuesday. Still, he said, the best explanation for his group’s observations is that K2-18b is covered with a warm ocean, brimming with life.
“This is a revolutionary moment,” Madhusudhan said. “It’s the first time humanity has seen potential biosignatures on a habitable planet.”
The study was published Wednesday in the Astrophysical Journal. Other researchers called it an exciting, thought-provoking first step to making sense of what’s on K2-18b. But they were reluctant to draw grand conclusions.
“It’s not nothing,” said Stephen Schmidt, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University. “It’s a hint. But we cannot conclude it’s habitable yet.”
If there is extraterrestrial life on K2-18b, or anywhere else, its discovery will arrive at a frustratingly slow pace. “Unless we see E.T. waving at us, it’s not going to be a smoking gun,” said Christopher Glein, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
There is a duplicate universe and Earth in space, a planet where you exist in duplicate, obeying all the laws and commandments you were supposed to in your life. On judgement day, God brings out the book’s planet and shows you what your life should have been if you were good and obedient to his law. He has us nailed, we have no excuse.....
More BS. 😂
And just what is this molecule?
“dimethyl sulfide, which is made of sulfur, carbon and hydrogen.”
It took 14 paragraphs to name the molecule.
“Dimethyl sulfide”... never heard of it. But even if the only known source of it is algae, that doesn’t necessarily exclude other possible sources.
Potassium Sorbate, a key ingredient of Hostess Twinkies.
That's what I heard, anyway.
Once they confirm the presence of algae on a hycean water world, they’ll likely to find these types of planets all over the place.
“that orbits a star 120 light-years from Earth”
Let’s keep things in perspective.
In one Earth light year, light covers a distance of roughly 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers.
We are 8.3 light minutes from the sun.
We are 24,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy
We are 320 light years from the North Star, Polaris.
Unobtainium?
That’s the first time I’ve heard that. Where did you come up with that?
E.T phone home.
Our crewed spaceships, like Apollo, reach speeds of around 39,400 km/h (24,500 mph).
It would still take around 27 thousand years to travel one lightyear. A plane travelling at 965 km/h (600 mp/h) would take 1 million years to travel one lightyear.
If they want to find stupid life look for signs of monumental debt like ours.
“120 light-years from Earth”
Y’all figure out how they will get here or we there?
There's a thread a little before this one - see my post here:
Although you can see there that there are people who plainly don't want to believe it, the molecules in question are simple ones that can be produced with simple non-organic chemical reactions.
“A plane travelling at 965 km/h (600 mp/h) would take 1 million years to travel one lightyear.”
But think of all the frequent flyer points you’d have!
😁
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