Did NASA's Telescope Find Alien Life? Here Is What Scientists Say
Ever since early humans appeared on planet Earth, we have been searching for an answer to the question - are we alone in this universe? The unending quest to find life beyond our planet still intrigues us, because we still don't know if life exists beyond earth in some form or the other.
Quest for life beyond earth?
Every so often we are told that we are close to finding extraterrestrial life, only to be left with inconclusive answers later. The search for aliens and UFOs recently got a boost with scientists claiming that they may have discovered alien life.
The excitement revolves around the discovery of a planet called K2-18b, a world around 125 light-years from Earth.
Life on K2-18b
It was discovered in September 2023, thanks to?NASA¡¯s?Hubble Space Telescope and researchers have claimed they may have seen a ¡°life¡± molecule on that planet.
This is based on the discovery of dimethyl?sulphide?(DMS)?on K2-18b, which scientists say is a gas "only produced by life".
According to them the abundance of methane and carbon dioxide, along with the shortage of ammonia support the hypothesis that K2-18 b may have a water ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.
Why the findings are important
"Our findings underscore the importance of considering diverse habitable environments in the search for life elsewhere," Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge said.
While the researchers could say with over 50?per cent?confidence that DMS was present based on the data sent by the James Webb Telescope last year, Madhusudhan said it was far from "conclusive evidence."
Scientists believe that observations collected on April 26 from the James Webb Space Telescope will hopefully confirm the presence of DMS in the exoplanet¡¯s atmosphere.
No conclusive evidence?
Others, however, are much less confident and argue that the signal is not as clear as it might have initially seemed.
Based on simulated computer models they pointed out that there was no way to be sure if the discovery was the presence of dimethyl sulfide or methane.
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