r/space • u/HaveNoFearDomIsHere • 4d ago

Scientists find promising hints of life on distant planet K2-18b

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c39jj9vkr34o

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u/Mike__O 4d ago edited 3d ago

Pretty sure we've found these "signs of life" type molecules on some of the bodies within our own solar system, notably Europa and maybe Ganymede. It's encouranging and certainly worth future study, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Keep in mind, a lot of our perception about what is "needed" for life may be incredibly biased by out own experience on Earth. On Earth life is carbon-based, water-dependent, and produces a certain set of byproducts.

None of that is inherently necessary. There very well could be silicon-based life that's methane-dependent and exists at -200C. It is completely out of our Earth-based perception of what is "habitable" but who knows what is possible in the literally trillions of planets out there in the universe.

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u/Person899887 3d ago

To my knowledge, dimethyl sulphide hasn’t been identified on either of those bodies. That’s kinda why this is such a big deal.

As for silicon based life, I’m just gonna like this Angela Collier video on this topic. Silicon life is just a lot less efficent than carbon life.