James Webb telescope discovers possible extraterrestrial life: 'Signs of probable biological activity'

One of the great mysteries that humanity has been pursuing since time immemorial is whether there is life beyond our planetary frontier. Many people are tirelessly investigating this fact. Thanks to technology, we have been able to learn much more about what surrounds us in space, but this issue has not yet been resolved.

However, a new study has come closer than ever before to learning more about this fact. This has been thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, which offers very valuable information about space. An international team, led by researchers from the University of Cambridge, has discovered some remarkable information about extraterrestrial life.

This is due to the detection of dimethyl sulfide or disulfide in the atmosphere of one of the planets visualized with the supertelescope, specifically, in the exoplanet K2-18b. This planet is 124 light years away, precisely in the constellation Leo. Likewise, compared to our planet, it has 2.6 times more radius.

The key is a molecule that is only generated by living beings on Earth

This evidence of possible extraterrestrial life is based on the fact that the molecules mentioned above and visualized on this exoplanet are found on our planet and can only be produced by living organisms, specifically by marine phytoplankton.

K2-18b meets all the requirements of a Hycean planet, which means that it could contain oceans. What makes this likely is that it also contains methane and carbon dioxide, which was detected by James Webb.

Nikku Madhusudhan, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge, commented on the discovery: "What we have found so far are signs of possible biological activity outside the Solar System (...) Frankly, I think this is the closest we have come to observing characteristics that we can attribute to life".