Life may be on another planet – 124 light years away
A research team at the Astronomy Institute of British Cambridge University has discovered preliminary evidence that there may be life on another planet with several characteristics that would be favorable for living organisms. Already in 2019, James Webb telescope had discovered water vapors, later also carbon dioxide and methane.
The new finds from the exoplanet K2-18B is dimethyl sulfide or the variant dimethyldisulfide, or both. These are gases that are closely associated with life – with us they are produced, among other things, by plankton, bacteria, plants and fungi. They also have a relatively short half -life, which would indicate that something produces them.
– The amount we appreciated in the atmosphere is thousands of times higher than we have on earth. So if the connection to life is real, then it will turn out that this planet is rolling with life, says research leader Nikku Madhusudhan to the BBC.
– This is the strongest proof so far that there may be life out there. I can sincerely say that we can confirm this signal within one to two years. If we can prove that there is life on K2-18B, it would basically confirm that life is very common in the galaxy.
K2-18B is a so-called super soil that was discovered in 2015. Its mass is almost 9 times the earth and radius almost 2.4 times as large. It takes 32.9 days for it to revolve a lap around its sun K2-18 in the constellation Lion at a distance long enough to be judged as habitable.
