Recent reports of the James Webb Space Telescope detecting signs of life have scientists divided.
The potential discovery has caused a buzz in the space community for what could be lurking on the surface of a distant planet outside our solar system. But some scientists aren’t convinced.
Researchers from the University of California Riverside (UCR) believe the findings are premature.
The discussion began when the James Webb Space Telescope detected ‘biosignature’ elements, or signs of life, in 2023, in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18 b. Hailed a ‘super-Earth’ it’s situated around 120 light-years from our planet.
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The super-Earth is two-three times wider and 8.6 times the mass of our home, and has it’s own star, like the Sun, and it has the perfect makeup to support liquid water. As we know, liquid water is vital for life as we know it.
However, the atmosphere is made up of mostly hydrogen rather than nitrogen, writes Space.com.
UCR’s project scientist Shang-Min Tsai said: “This planet gets almost the same amount of solar radiation as Earth. And if atmosphere is removed as a factor, K2-18 b has a temperature close to Earth’s, which is also an ideal situation in which to find life.”
University of Cambridge scientists investigated K2-18 b using the JWST and found carbon dioxide and methane without traces of ammonia, which indicates it would be a world with a vas ocean and hydrogen rich.
But Tsai said something else was found: “What was icing on the cake, in terms of the search for life, is that last year these researchers reported a tentative detection of dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, in the atmosphere of that planet, which is produced by ocean phytoplankton on Earth.”
He says if DMS is detectable, there could be a life-form on the surface.
The levels were inconclusive though, but researchers say further observations are needed to confirm DMS presence on the super-Earth.
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