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Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18B

nasa.gov

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Re: Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18B

#31

Post by lovecg »

behnamoh wrote: post #24
v8xi wrote: post #14

In Nick Lane's Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World, he talks about the importance of both methane and carbon dioxide and how they exist at the extremes of a complex metabolic oxidation-reduction cycle. Methane stores a lot of chemical energy in its C-H bonds which can be burned directly, or metabolized through repeat oxidation events to ultimately form CO2, which plants utilize with the help of the sun to form m…

I wonder what life looks like on a planet which is over 8 times more massive than the Earth. Do animals have spines at all on a planet with almost 8g gravity? Does life even get to evolve into complex systems like animals under this much gravity? How about plants? Do they grow up or spread out instead? If one day we get a visitor from this planet, they'll jump on our planet the same way human astronauts jumped on the…

Note that 8 times more massive doesn’t mean it has 8 times surface g, unless it’s exactly the same radius as the Earth. If the planet is larger you’re further away from the center of gravity.

For example, the Earth is 10 times more massive than Mars, but only has 2.6 times surface g.

Re: Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18B

#32

Post by 0xfaded »

behnamoh wrote: post #24
v8xi wrote: post #14

In Nick Lane's Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World, he talks about the importance of both methane and carbon dioxide and how they exist at the extremes of a complex metabolic oxidation-reduction cycle. Methane stores a lot of chemical energy in its C-H bonds which can be burned directly, or metabolized through repeat oxidation events to ultimately form CO2, which plants utilize with the help of the sun to form m…

I wonder what life looks like on a planet which is over 8 times more massive than the Earth. Do animals have spines at all on a planet with almost 8g gravity? Does life even get to evolve into complex systems like animals under this much gravity? How about plants? Do they grow up or spread out instead? If one day we get a visitor from this planet, they'll jump on our planet the same way human astronauts jumped on the…

Assuming roughly comparable density to earth, the surface gravity would only be 2g

Re: Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18B

#33

Post by gizmo686 »

behnamoh wrote: post #24
v8xi wrote: post #14

In Nick Lane's Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World, he talks about the importance of both methane and carbon dioxide and how they exist at the extremes of a complex metabolic oxidation-reduction cycle. Methane stores a lot of chemical energy in its C-H bonds which can be burned directly, or metabolized through repeat oxidation events to ultimately form CO2, which plants utilize with the help of the sun to form m…

I wonder what life looks like on a planet which is over 8 times more massive than the Earth. Do animals have spines at all on a planet with almost 8g gravity? Does life even get to evolve into complex systems like animals under this much gravity? How about plants? Do they grow up or spread out instead? If one day we get a visitor from this planet, they'll jump on our planet the same way human astronauts jumped on the…

Gravity is more relevant for land based life. However, we know from Earth that complex life can evolve in oceans.

Re: Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18B

#34

Post by jug »

nickhalfasleep wrote: post #19

Scientists using Webb may be able to present some surprisingly strong evidence that we are not the only life bearing planet in the galaxy.

Yeah, not sure about the sensitivity, if it's particularly good conditions here but at least this data set looks like it gives remarkably little room for false positives and quite highly detailed. I thought it would push JWST a bit harder but this looks promising. Even a novice can read out the evidence for various molecules in that graph? So, if only we'd find an exciting result soon!

Re: Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18B

#35

Post by BoiledCabbage »

Aachen wrote: post #21
Jeff_Brown wrote: post #20

In case you wondered too, this is 124 light-years from us.

Wow, that's really close so far as these things go. With the nearest star being 4ly, this can be reached with essentially the same tech level if we'd want to visit that with a rover or generational ship one day

What's also crazy is if we did send a rover over there to hunt for life, and they found it, we'd have to wait 125 years to hear the result.

We all sit around knowing to listen to the skies sometime in October of 2185 to hear if the rover found life within the first month of its landing.

If we ever send a team to live there, we'd hear broadcasts of their lives from 125 years prior. A real portal in time - so cool.

Re: Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18B

#37

Post by [deleted] »

behnamoh wrote: post #24
v8xi wrote: post #14

In Nick Lane's Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World, he talks about the importance of both methane and carbon dioxide and how they exist at the extremes of a complex metabolic oxidation-reduction cycle. Methane stores a lot of chemical energy in its C-H bonds which can be burned directly, or metabolized through repeat oxidation events to ultimately form CO2, which plants utilize with the help of the sun to form m…

I wonder what life looks like on a planet which is over 8 times more massive than the Earth. Do animals have spines at all on a planet with almost 8g gravity? Does life even get to evolve into complex systems like animals under this much gravity? How about plants? Do they grow up or spread out instead? If one day we get a visitor from this planet, they'll jump on our planet the same way human astronauts jumped on the…

[deleted]

Re: Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18B

#38

Post by watersb »

behnamoh wrote: post #24
v8xi wrote: post #14

In Nick Lane's Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World, he talks about the importance of both methane and carbon dioxide and how they exist at the extremes of a complex metabolic oxidation-reduction cycle. Methane stores a lot of chemical energy in its C-H bonds which can be burned directly, or metabolized through repeat oxidation events to ultimately form CO2, which plants utilize with the help of the sun to form m…

I wonder what life looks like on a planet which is over 8 times more massive than the Earth. Do animals have spines at all on a planet with almost 8g gravity? Does life even get to evolve into complex systems like animals under this much gravity? How about plants? Do they grow up or spread out instead? If one day we get a visitor from this planet, they'll jump on our planet the same way human astronauts jumped on the…

I wonder how much of an outlier we may be, shuffling around on dry land, when most of the biosphere of our planet is in the ocean.

Higher gravity certainly means higher pressure gradient, more pressure per vertical meter of ocean. And high pressure affects protein structure.

It's life, but not as we know it.

Re: Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18B

#39

Post by hungryforcodes »

Aachen wrote: post #21
Jeff_Brown wrote: post #20

In case you wondered too, this is 124 light-years from us.

Wow, that's really close so far as these things go. With the nearest star being 4ly, this can be reached with essentially the same tech level if we'd want to visit that with a rover or generational ship one day

We'd need some fast tech for sure. However, what is also interesting is that the light from it is only 124 years old. So the planet is still very similar today probably.
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