The James Webb Space Telescope has enabled scientists to detect signs indicating potential life on K2-18b, a planet beyond our solar system.
Researchers have discovered what they deem the most compelling evidence to date of potential extraterrestrial life by detecting the chemical signature of gases in the atmosphere of an exoplanet that are solely produced by living organisms on Earth.
Through the James Webb Space Telescope, experts have uncovered evidence of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) on K2-18b, a planet beyond our solar system.
On Earth, these gases are produced mainly by living organisms, including algae, implying that K2-18b could be teeming with microbial life.
Researchers have emphasized that the findings do not constitute an announcement of the discovery of actual living organisms, but rather serve as an indicator of a biological process.
K2-18b, found approximately 124 light-years from Earth within the constellation Leo, exhibits a mass 8.6 times greater than Earth's and a diameter about 2.6 times as large as Earth.
It orbits in the "habitable zone", a distance at which liquid water, a crucial ingredient for life, can be present on a planetary surface.
Nikku Madhusudhan of the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy stated that this marked a "transformational moment in the search for life beyond the solar system". According to Professor Madhusudhan, we have now entered the era of observational astrobiology.
Webb, which was launched in 2021 and became operational in 2022, had previously identified methane and carbon dioxide in K2-18b's atmosphere, a groundbreaking discovery of carbon-based molecules in the atmosphere of an exoplanet within a star's habitable zone.
As Professor Madhusudhan pointed out, the only scenario that currently explains all the data obtained so far from JWST, including the past and present observations, is one where K2-18b is a hycean world teeming with life.
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