London – Astronomers have found possible chemical signs of life on a distant planet outside our solar system, although they warn more work to confirm their findings.
The research, led by scientists from the University of Cambridge, detected evidence of compounds in the exoplanet atmosphere that on Earth are only produced by living organisms and said it is the strongest potential signal in life.
Independent scientists described the findings as interesting, but not enough to show the existence of life on another planet.
“It is the strongest signal until the date of any possibility of biological activity outside the Solar System,” Cambridge Nikku Madhusudhan on a live broadcast on Thursday said Thursday.
When analyzing the NASA data and the webb space telescope of the European Space Agency, the researchers found evidence of dimethylsulfuro and dimethyl disulfide in the atmosphere of the planet known as K2-18B. The planet is 124 light years away; A light year is equivalent to almost 6 billion miles.
On earth, these two compounds are mainly produced by microbial life, such as marine phytoplankton.
The planet is more than double the size of the earth and more than 8 times more massive. It is in the so -called habitable zone of its star. The study appeared in the Astrophysical Journal Letters magazine.
Madhusudhan emphasized that more research is needed to rule out any error or the possibility of other processes, in addition to living organisms, which could produce compounds.
David Clements, astrophysicist of Imperial College London, said that atmospheres on other planets are complex and difficult to understand, especially with the limited information available from a planet so far away.
“This is something really interesting and, although it still does not represent a clear detection of dimethyl sulphide and dimethyl disulfide, it is a step in the right direction,” he said in the comments published by the London Science Media Center.
So far, more than 5,500 planets that orbit other stars have been confirmed. Thousands more are running out of thousands of millions in our Galaxy of the Milky Way alone.
Released in 2021, Webb is the largest and most powerful observatory ever sent to space.
