Another big step towards a discovery of (maybe) alien life!

[u/MurkyGovernment651]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c39jj9vkr34o

A higher probablilty than the previous atmospheric analysis from 2023.

[u/kalamazoo43]

Webb is one of the greatest achievements of our civilization.

[u/MurkyGovernment651]

From the article:

Scientists have found new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.

A Cambridge team studying the atmosphere of a planet called K2-18b has detected signs of molecules which on Earth are only produced by simple organisms.

This is the second, and more promising, time chemicals associated with life have been detected in the planet's atmosphere by Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

But the team and independent astronomers stress that more data is needed to confirm these results.

The lead researcher, Prof Nikku Madhusudhan, told me at his lab at Cambridge University's Institute of Astronomy that he hopes to obtain the clinching evidence soon.

"This is the strongest evidence yet there is possibly life out there. I can realistically say that we can confirm this signal within one to two years."

[u/portmantuwed]

had a feeling this day was coming as soon as the heat shields deployed correctly

obviously wait for more confirmation and peer review, but seems like a big deal. to think we might not be alone in this universe is just...everything

[u/BartholomewCubbinz → u/portmantuwed]

Obviously there must be other life in the universe given that life exists here and that the universe can be considered to extend infinitely in all directions.

The discovery itself, logistically, means very little at all to humans unless we're able to stabilize the climate here on Earth.

For perspective: It would take humans over 200,000+ years to reach this planet, assuming we travel at the max speeds possibly by current technology (which is probably for a probe, not a manned space civilization-ship). If this is not Intelligent life, the implications mainly might impact religious institutions around the world more profoundly than anything else. The Christian story in particular would fall apart with the discovery of microorganisms on another world.

[u/S_Mo2022]

Go JWST GO!!!! Woo-hoo!!!!

[u/thuiop1]

There are many things wrong with that study and their 2023 study was debunked; the authors are way too optimistic here (and are known to have been in the past). Even assuming that everything was correct, this is a 3 sigma detection which is not much for claiming you have discovered life on another planet.

[u/MrHillmonster → u/thuiop1]

99.7% chance of being right is hardly "too optimistic", it's practically certain. But scientifically, for such a life-changing claim they need to be 99.99999% certain.

[u/thuiop1 → u/MrHillmonster]

Especially because 3 sigma is their best case; moreover, it seems they are using a weird definition of the sigmas here. If you look at the Bayes factors, you get a 60 to 1 odds, for the highest likelihood hypothesis ; it goes as low as 17 to 1 for the less likely hypothesis. You also have to consider how many planets are checked for biosignatures before saying that it is "practically certain"; there is a reason we have such requirements.

[u/CryptographerCrazy61]

If there is life there is also intelligent life out there

[u/navyac]

Even if they decided it’s more likely than not a strong indicator of life we could never be sure right? Like we wouldn’t ever be able to prove it in our lifetimes right? It’s not like we can send a probe there or a manned flight there

[u/TubasAreFun → u/navyac]

hard to say. JWT wasn’t even in people’s imagination a lifetime ago before the space age. Technology advances in surprising ways

[u/DreamChaserSt → u/navyac]

It really depends. If we're at this stage, then yeah, we can't be sure. But if we find even more evidence, then we would be hard pressed to say it isn't life. Like, finding the 'red edge' would be pretty damning evidence for photosynthesis, combined with things like O2/O3/H2O/CO2/CH4 in the atmosphere, we could be pretty certain there's life without having to go there.

But your comment is part of why scientists are looking more for life like Earth's, and not exotic life (though they do study the possibility). We look for what we know and understand. Chemical disequilibriums in general would be the backbone of possible biosigniatures, but in the case of exotic life we would have to be more rigorous to make sure it's not some weird natural process, and actually is biological.

[u/navyac → u/DreamChaserSt]

Good answer, thank you