2023-09-13 06:00:00
Amira Shehata wrote Wednesday, September 13, 2023 09:00 AM Scientists have made a pioneering discovery in the search for alien life, following discovering signs of the presence of a gas produced only by living organisms on a distant water planet, located in K2-18 b, which is more than eight times the size of… Earth is 120 light-years away from us, within the habitable zone of its cold dwarf star in the constellation Leo. According to what the British newspaper “Daily Mail” reported, it is believed to be a “Hycean” world, a relatively new class of exoplanets that possess key components due to their hydrogen-rich atmospheres and watery oceans, but the presence of something else is what made astronomers more excited, as it was discovered A gas ‘uniquely associated with life’ when found in the atmosphere of planet K2-18 b, which is known as a ‘super-Earth’ because it is larger than our planet but smaller than Neptune. The discovery of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), a complex molecule made up of carbon, hydrogen and sulfur atoms, along with two carbon-bearing gases, left researchers feeling “a mixture of shock, excitement and disbelief”. “On Earth, this is only produced by life,” NASA said, adding, “The bulk of DMS in Earth’s atmosphere is emitted from phytoplankton in marine environments.” Scientists confirmed that more observations are needed by the James Webb Space Telescope to confirm the presence of DMS. If this discovery is verified, it would make K2-18b among the most likely worlds where alien life might exist. It has also been discovered that the recently discovered super-Earth contains large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane in its atmosphere, the presence of which may indicate that it is habitable or perhaps already inhabited.
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#NASA #discovers #exoplanet #conditions #life
