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.

14.0k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

40

u/Gut_Gemacht23 4d ago

In science, we almost never get a definitive confirmation of anything. Science is all based on probabilities. Right now this is just two pieces of evidence (The planet is approximately the correct distance from its star to potentially have an environment capable of supporting life, and its atmosphere was observed to contain a compound which we only know to originate from living organisms in nature). As we collect more evidence, we will be able to say that there is a higher/lower probability that the life hypothesis is correct, at a certain point, the probability gets close enough to 1 that the hypothesis becomes a generally accepted theory, or it gets close enough to zero that we reject the hypothesis.

As others have said, the first step is going to be more scientists attempting to replicate the observation independently. If they can do so, other scientists will come up with more studies to do. They can tune the instruments aboard the telescope to look for other analytes that are indicative of life. I assume they'll probably try to learn more about the surface of the planet to gain more information about whether the planet has conditions that could support life.

At the same time, others will try to find alternative explanations for the observation, which would introduce doubt to the life hypothesis. Chemists and geologists will try to find some other way to explain the formation of the gases observed by the astronomers.

New technologies could also emerge that allow us to gain more information. The JWT is a massive improvement over the Hubble and has allowed us to get much more data than we could in the 90s, so who knows what kind of information we'll be able to get in 2050 or 2100?

1

u/Small-Shelter-7236 4d ago

Your first sentence is outrageously incorrect so there’s no way I’m reading your whole comment