Researchers find references to extraterrestrial life in the atmosphere of distant planets – diepresse.com

When searching for life outside of our solar system, an international team of researchers may be a big step. In the atmosphere of a distant planet, astronomers discovered signs of two important chemical compounds that could indicate extraterrestrial life, as can be seen from a study published on Thursday in the specialist magazine « The Astrophysical Journal Letters ».

The sulfur compounds are the most promising « indications » that there are actually life on the 124 light year-old exoplanet K2-18B.

Discovery using the James webb telescope

The team of British and US researchers explained that the discovery of dimethyl sulfide and dimethyldisulfide was successful with the help of the James Webb telescope. The substances, which are considered to be « biosignatures », are only produced on earth by living beings, mostly by microscopic small seaweed, the phytoplankton. However, the researchers emphasized that further observations were necessary to confirm these results. It is not a final discovery.

Nevertheless, according to the co -author Nikku Madhusudhan from the University of Cambridge, the effects could be enormous. « What we find at this point are indications of possible biological activities outside the solar system, » he said to journalists. The researchers have « never » had a find so close that they could « live ».

Exoplanet K2-18b

The exoplanet K2-18B was discovered in 2015 by the US WITH TRAINTELESPOP KEPLER. He circles the sun K2-18, a red dwarf star in the Lion constellation, in the so-called habitable zone. This means that it is neither too hot nor too cold for the formation of liquid water as the most important prerequisite for life. K2-18B is more than eight times the size of the earth as this, Mars and Venus made of silicates and ice cream. (APA/AFP)