NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Detects life on Distant Planet
(MENAFN) NASA’s advanced James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has identified potential indicators of life on a planet located trillions of miles away from Earth, based on a newly issued report by a research team at Cambridge University.
The investigation was led by Professor Nikku Madhusudhan of the university's Institute of Astronomy, who revealed that the team discovered traces of certain molecules in the planet’s atmosphere—molecules that, on Earth, are exclusively generated by basic life forms.
Although the discovery is encouraging, Professor Madhusudhan emphasized the necessity for additional data to verify the conclusions.
These preliminary results were documented in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. He remarked to media, "This is the strongest evidence yet there is possibly life out there," adding that, "I can realistically say that we can confirm this signal within one to two years."
The planet in question, K2-18b, is approximately two and a half times larger than Earth and is located an astounding 700 trillion miles away.
Despite this enormous separation, experts explained that the remarkable capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope enable it to examine the atmospheric composition of the planet by studying the starlight that filters through it from the dim red dwarf star it orbits.
Professor Madhusudhan also noted, "The amount we estimate of this gas in the atmosphere is thousands of times higher than what we have on Earth."
He elaborated that if this gas is indeed tied to biological activity, then the planet may be "teeming with life."
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