It is not yet a definitive proof of the existence of life on another planet, but scientists claim that it is the most consistent identified so far: the James Webb telescope – reports Reuters on its site – has sighted a planet with an ocean of liquid water under an atmosphere rich in hydrogen, of the type produced by algae, in orbit around a red dwarf.
K2-18B has a mass 8.6 times that of the earth and is located about 124 light years from our planet. The two gases detected in its atmosphere – Dimetyl Solfuro, or DMS, and Dimetyl disolfuro, or DMDS – are generated on earth by living organisms, mainly by microbial life forms such as Marino phytoplankton or algae.
This suggests – the researchers say – that the planet could be rich in microbial life. However, they underlined that they are not announcing the discovery of real living organisms, but rather of a possible ‘biofirma’ – an indicator of a biological process – and that the results must be considered with caution, as further observations are needed. The astrophysicist Nikku Madhusudhan of the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Cambridge, the main author of the study published on the Astrophysical Journal Letters, does not hide his enthusiasm: “These are the first clues to an alien world potentially inhabited”, although probably only by elementary life forms.
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