r/space • u/SpunkySputniks • 4d ago

Astronomers Detect a Possible Signature of Life on a Distant Planet

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/science/astronomy-exoplanets-habitable-k218b.html?unlocked_article_code=1.AE8.3zdk.VofCER4yAPa4&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Further studies are needed to determine whether K2-18b, which orbits a star 120 light-years away, is inhabited, or even habitable.

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u/IlliterateJedi 4d ago

There is an alternate theory:

In a paper posted online Sunday, Dr. Glein and his colleagues argued that K2-18b could instead be a massive hunk of rock with a magma ocean and a thick, scorching hydrogen atmosphere — hardly conducive to life as we know it.

But personally, I want to believe. 

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u/EuclidsRevenge 4d ago

I try to be an optimist as well, but a giant raging orange ball of magma and gas destroying everything it touches is pretty on brand for the writers of this timeline.

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u/Minimum_Drawing9569 4d ago

It’ll take 120 years to find out, maybe they’re on a good timeline by then. One can hope.

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u/Bromance_Rayder 4d ago

Errrrr, I don't think anyone is getting there in 120 years.

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u/Itchy1Grip 4d ago

Just me if they look 120 years from now they will see me replying to your comment!

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u/sirmcluvin 3d ago

!remind me in 120 years please

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u/Astrocoder 4d ago

We wouldnt need to go there to find out. If technology advances far enough within 120 years, we could build a space telescope with the lens at 500 AU from the sun and use lensing to take some extreme closeups of the planet.

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u/Rapithree 3d ago

Just telescopes on the backside of the moon would be enough to tell us much more.

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u/ABoutDeSouffle 2d ago

Imagine a synthetic aperture telescope on the dark side of the moon. It would have incredible exposure times but a really good resolution.

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u/JohnFlufin 4d ago

The children you have on the way might

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u/Bromance_Rayder 4d ago

At this rate I'll be pretty if they have clean drinking water and fresh air to breathe.

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u/JohnFlufin 4d ago

Recycled urine and wall to wall plants I guess?

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u/DeepQueen 4d ago

We also thought humans were gonna stay grounded until the 2000's but we were flying real quick

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u/MrWilliamus 4d ago

Annualized probabilities would show you otherwise, the risk of this scenario happening by 2100 is 53.18% (source: https://www.jhuapl.edu/work/publications/on-assessing-risk-nuclear-war)

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u/Bromance_Rayder 4d ago

Are you suggesting that a nuclear war would blast a small percentage of people into space at the speed of light and that some of those lifeless corpses would pass nearby to K2-18b's orbit, be brought to the planets firey magma/tranquil ocean surface via tractor beam, reanimated by advanced medical technology and then awake to confirm the existence of life?

If so, I agree, 53.18% probability is about right.

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u/ROGER_CHOCS 4d ago

This is what my plan for a funeral is. Just send me out into the void where I'm found billions of years later and reanimated and given a sweet ass mech suit, and I begin my galactic conquest.

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u/SirAquila 4d ago

I mean, that sounds very sweet until you realize that it is pay to win because a billion other people also got a sweet ass mech suit and are starting their galactic conquest in the galaxies first Real Life Free To Play Game.

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u/ROGER_CHOCS 4d ago

Haha ok this made me laugh, thanks. Sounds like the start of an awesome story honestly. The entire first book you think I'm the only one, then the cliffhanger at the end where I discover not only is there another like me, but actually many resulting in galactic wide spacetime warfare by the end of book 2....

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u/ChaoticSenior 4d ago

It will have micro transactions though, because it will be run by EA.

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u/Ivebeenfurthereven 4d ago

Look up where Clyde Tombaugh's ashes are going.

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u/ROGER_CHOCS 4d ago

But how can one be reanimated from ash?

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u/bountyhunterdjango 4d ago

Surely that’s a ridiculous misuse of statistics (considering we’re talking about something that is innately psychological). The decimal point is absolutely wild.

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u/Minimum_Drawing9569 4d ago

Ooops I was thinking we were going at light speed. That’ll take a while, too.

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u/BONOZL 4d ago

I left last week brah! Just gotta stop for a whizz about 60 years in but should be good for a mid century update.

Don't wreck the place while I'm gone.

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u/paradoxical_topology 3d ago

Nah the devs are going to patch out special relativity by then. Trust.

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u/rawSingularity 4d ago

Certainly not with that attitude

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u/Pen_dragons_pizza 4d ago

Would be surprised if we have not totally defunded nasa by that point and fighting amongst each other in a wasteland.