The exoplanet (a planet outside our Solar System) designated K2-18b is more than eight times the size of Earth. It is located in the so-called habitable zone, which means that life could exist in the area. K2-18b was discovered in 2015 and four years later the presence of water vapor in its atmosphere was found.
In September 2023, the Webb telescope discovered greenhouse gases in its atmosphere – carbon dioxide and methane, which are associated with life. However, an even more fundamental discovery was the molecule of the organic compound dimethyl sulfide. This is a substance produced only by life on Earth and is mostly emitted from phytoplankton in the marine environment.
The exoplanet research is led by an astrophysicist from the University of Cambridge, Nikku Madhusudhan. “If we actually detect DMS (dimethyl sulfide at K2-18b), so this finding basically raises the discovery to the top of the list of potential signs of habitability,” he said. He has previously hinted that last September’s discovery was a big moment because it could mean there could be a water ocean beneath the atmosphere.
Immediately after the September discovery, geologist Petr Brož from the Institute of Geophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic urged restraint. According to him, making a link between discovery and life is tricky.
“Yes, we found something in the atmosphere of an exoplanet that only makes life on Earth. But we know nothing about what it looks like on that exoplanet. We don’t know much about the local chemistry and the chemical reactions that take place there. Until you know for sure where the substance is getting into the exoplanet’s atmosphere, it does not mean proof of life,” Brož told Novinkám last year.
An eight-hour examination of the James Webb telescope, scheduled for Friday, according to the Daily Mail, should provide a definitive answer. However, scientists will analyze the data obtained by the telescope for the next few months.
James Webb Telescope at a Glance:
The James Webb Telescope was launched into space on December 25, 2021, becoming the imaginary successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. Compared to it, it should provide images in a higher resolution and bring better research opportunities to scientists. It is named after James E. Webb, who was an important figure in NASA’s Apollo program. The entire project was created in international cooperation between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency.
The Webb Telescope has taken the most detailed images yet of nineteen spiral galaxies
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