Scientists find strongest evidence yet of life on an alien planet

https://www.reuters.com/science/scientists-find-strongest-evidence-yet-life-an-alien-planet-2025-04-16/

by prossercj • 1 year ago

119 42 1 year ago

tmshapland2• 1 year ago

I've been waiting to see atmospheric composition results from JWT. It seems like JWT was first put to work on other tasks. Anyone know of other studies from JWT like this?

niwtsol• 1 year ago

Here is a list of approved programs for JWST - https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/approved-progra...

You can filter by cycle & purpose - I think you want GO 4 then look at Exoplanet Atmospheres and Habitability?

Related, but here is the Spectra of K2-18 image - https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2023/139/01H...

tmshapland2• 1 year ago

This is cool! Thank you for responding with this! Really neat to see the K2-18 spectra too.

incognito124• 1 year ago

duplicate: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43714203

gamescr• 1 year ago

https://archive.is/bEYGH

ChrisArchitect• 1 year ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43711376

1024core• 1 year ago

What about just looking for oxygen in a planet's atmosphere?

bobmcnamara• 1 year ago

Might be a noise floor from all the interstellar medium oxygen?

schainks• 1 year ago

Third line of the summary:

Gases found are the same as those produced by algae on Earth

AIUI, the sensors used for this discover don't look for just _one_ gas, but as many as possible. So Oxygen is probably included in that list.

Life needs more than just oxygen gas in the atmosphere to thrive. The right combination of gasses is a better signal that life could be there versus just the presence of one gas.

Galatians4_16• 1 year ago

Plenty of abiotic oxygen sources, even on Earth.

rbanffy7• 1 year ago

And plenty of life for which Oxygen is a poison.

dakr• 1 year ago

Free oxygen combines with other things very readily, so you need a steady source to replenish it. Abiotic sources may not be common/strong enough. It's been a long time since I've kept tabs on that research, however.

rbanffy7• 1 year ago

Not all life needs (or wants) oxygen. Plenty of earthlings die quickly when exposed to it.

rbanffy7• 1 year ago

Surface gravity is a bit higher than Earth (12 m/s2), but totally bearable for humans. The smell of the atmosphere, on the other hand, will be something the first human visitors will never forget ;-).

wordglyph• 1 year ago

So no dunkin basketballs?

rbanffy7• 1 year ago

12 m/s² doesn't seem too bad.

bobxmax• 1 year ago

just gotta crack that pesky FTL travel

rollcat• 1 year ago

I'm still trying to wrap my head around why does FTL violate causality (even in the specific case of "space folding", a theoretical instant jump from one point in space to another).

Let's simplify the problem (take a spherical cow in the vacuum), say we have planets A and B, 100 LY away from each other, time flows at exactly the same rate near both, clear path in between them, they move through space at the same speed and relative direction, etc.

I'm on planet A. I send out a signal towards planet B. I jump to planet B and wait 100 years. I observe the signal.

Now my simplistic assumptions probably suggest that this isn't that much different from sending out a carrier pigeon while I take the train to its destination and wait. Very obviously I'm not Einstein. What am I missing?

rbanffy7• 1 year ago

I'd love that, but when we have perfected off-planet orbital habitats in the outer solar system, it'd be an interesting endeavor to add engines, make the trip in 1,000 years and say hello to our cabbage-smelling neighbors (who'll probably think the same about us).

In the meantime, we continue to develop new designs for deep space mobile habitats and the expedition can have the newest design to build a couple in their new system.

I imagine a culture that has developed in a deep space habitat would not feel life on a planetary surface very appealing.

fracus• 1 year ago

I'm curious how many generations of natural selection it would take humans to adapt to the new gravity assuming we had no technology to do it.

glenstein2• 1 year ago

A great question. And one fascinating but maybe disturbing thing we have seen from the ISS is the body seems to be pretty aggressive with bone decalcification in lower-G environments. I don't know if there's a corollary for higher-G, and the mechanism is orthogonal to questions about heritability, but meaningful changes happen even within the life span of a single person.

Qem• 1 year ago

Assuming unchanged density of tissues, mass is proportional to volume and strength is proportional to muscle/bone cross section. According to the square-cube law[1], to keep the same weight to strength ratio under ≃20% higher gravity, body linear dimensions should be down-scaled by 1/1.2 ≃ 83%.

So I think not many generations would be necessary, given individuals with 83% the average size or smaller are a common occurrence. The trait small body size should just become more common.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%E2%80%93cube_law

kolanos• 1 year ago

I read it would smell like cabbage.

kcplate• 1 year ago

Like carnies?

astrolx• 1 year ago

Funny enough, DMS is a fermentation byproduct in beer brewing and it's detectable for us at low concentration. The off-flavor it can cause is indeed "cooked corn" or "cabbage". [https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/acceptabl...].

Simon_O_Rourke• 1 year ago

And still there's uncertainty about intelligent life existing in Jersey City.

glenstein2• 1 year ago

Everything about it feels like BFD category for potential microbial life if true. And all the circumstantial details seem to point in the same direction. Potential hydrogen-rich ocean planet in a habitable zone, in alignment with theory about most plausible models for environments that might support life.

It's got no known abiotic process for being generated, but a clearly understood connection to life, and is apparently very reactive and would have to be actively re-generated at mass scale to sustainably show up in an atmosphere.

Nothing should be taken as proven, but it feels staggeringly plausible, and in my opinion would be the biggest of the "big if true" space stories I've ever seen in my lifetime.

beng-nl• 1 year ago

I had to finish your comment before realizing you truly meant BFD as such and not (as I think more often the use is) sarcastically BFD. That said I agree.

eMPee584• 1 year ago

BFD in this context standing for "Big Fucking Deal" (Urban Dictionary), not "Binary File Descriptor" (V.E.R.A. - Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms) I guess?

karim79• 1 year ago

I'm reminded of this wonderful talk from Clara Sousa-Silva[0], a 'quantum astrochemist'.

At one point in this fascinating talk, she mentions that aliens would immediately be able to identify Earth as inhabited by life, because only a stupid and yet advanced civilization would be capable of creating CFCs. I highly recommend this video.

[0] https://youtu.be/iN0uyGVNlkQ?si=unBC3Cj228fKJV4i

Scientists find strongest evidence yet of life on an alien planet

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