A A team of astronomers have found what they claim to be the most promising – but also temporarily – from a possible life on a remote planet.
The search, which was published in Astronomical physical magazine messagesCambridge University remained based on data from the James Web telescope. The researchers discovered at least one chemical fingerprints, if not two, molecules-sulfide Dimethyl (DMS) and diathyl sulfide (DMDS)-in the atmosphere of K2-18B, a planet outside our solar system, 124 light-years from Earth. Like the Earth, this planet revolves around its star in the area suitable for housing – a region around a star in which the planets with liquid water can be found on its roofs.
“On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by life, especially microbial life such as marine plant plankton,” Cambridge press release He said. “While an unknown chemical process may be a source of these molecules in the atmosphere of K2-18b, the results are the strongest evidence so far that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system.”
According to the press statement, there is a possibility of 0.3 % that these results were a statistical coincidence. This is not a small opportunity enough to reach the standard required to demand a scientific discovery – therefore, there must be less than the possibility of 0.00006 % that occurred by chance.
K2-18B has a mass of 8.6 times the number of Earth, and the planet is 2.6 times like Earth. Scientists have looked at this planet for a few years until now. In 2023, the researchers said they Find Evidence of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of K2-18B- the first time that carbon-based molecules are discovered in the planet atmosphere outside our solar system in the area suitable for housing.
While astronomers said that the latest results are “exciting”, they confirmed that additional research should be conducted before providing a bold claim that life has been found on another planet.
“It is important to doubt our results, because we are only by testing and testing again, we will be able to reach the point we are confident in,” Niko Madosodhan, a professor at the Cambridge Institute for Astronomy that led the research, ” He said In the university’s press statement. “Thus science should do.”