“Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
skyatnightmagazine.com
“Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
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Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#2TL;DR
- K2-18b
- detected dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide, false positive possibility is now very low
- "produced by marine-dwelling organisms on Earth", possibility they were produced by other processes (unrelated to life as we know it) not high but maybe unknown unknowns
- other factors like distance from the star are in favor of life & water
- previous studies detected methane and carbon dioxide
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#3Astronomers have yet again found possible signs of alien life.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#4Astronomers have yet again found possible signs of alien life.
You're not thinking like a journalist. This is a breakthrough! Alien life has been found! SETI is making contact as we speak.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#5Here's the primary source
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adc1c8
They possibly detected dimethyl sulfide, which is only known to be produced by living organisms.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#6Firstly that is completely badass science. The idea that you can use observations to detect the chemical composition of an exoplanet millions of kilometres away is an absolute triumph of the work of thousands of people over hundreds of years. Really amazing and deeply humbling to me.
Secondly, my prior was always that life existed outside of earth. It just seems so unlikely that we are somehow that special. If life developed here I always felt it overwhelmingly likely that it developed elsewhere too given how incredibly unfathomably vast the universe is.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#7TL;DR - K2-18b - detected dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide, false positive possibility is now very low - "produced by marine-dwelling organisms on Earth", possibility they were produced by other processes (unrelated to life as we know it) not high but maybe unknown unknowns - other factors like distance from the star are in favor of life & water - previous studies detected methane and carbon dioxide
> false positive possibility is very low
No, it means we will soon discover how these compounds form naturally. Would love to be wrong, of course.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#8TL;DR - K2-18b - detected dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide, false positive possibility is now very low - "produced by marine-dwelling organisms on Earth", possibility they were produced by other processes (unrelated to life as we know it) not high but maybe unknown unknowns - other factors like distance from the star are in favor of life & water - previous studies detected methane and carbon dioxide
Parent is a flare star
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#9A bit clickbaity of OP to skip the operative word ‘promising’ signs of life.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#10TL;DR - K2-18b - detected dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide, false positive possibility is now very low - "produced by marine-dwelling organisms on Earth", possibility they were produced by other processes (unrelated to life as we know it) not high but maybe unknown unknowns - other factors like distance from the star are in favor of life & water - previous studies detected methane and carbon dioxide
> false positive possibility is very low No, it means we will soon discover how these compounds form naturally. Would love to be wrong, of course.
I meant (and I think the article meant) false positive of gas detection not life