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This is really exciting. We're not alone
In a potential landmark discovery, scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have obtained what they call the strongest signs yet of possible life beyond our solar system, detecting in an alien planet's atmosphere the chemical fingerprints of gases that on Earth are produced only by biological processes.
The two gases — dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, and dimethyl disulfide, or DMDS — involved in Webb's observations of the planet named K2-18 b are generated on Earth by living organisms, primarily microbial life such as marine phytoplankton — algae.
We can also be "not alone" in the solar system... for example, there may well be life on the same Europe.We're not alone
We finally discovered ourselves? I bet lots of stuff flying around in our atmosphere thinks we are the aliens?This is really exciting. We're not alone
We have recognized the existence of the widespread elements of life for over a decade already. We need to have a renewed focus on orbiters, probes and rovers within in our own solar system to confirm the likely hood of life that may exist light years away from us.This is really exciting. We're not alone
And they can all be taught:then it's everywhere in the universe
But Joshua Krissansen-Totton, an astrobiologist at the University of Washington, said he worried that American astrobiologists may not be able to follow up on the latest results on K2-18b.
The Trump administration is reportedly planning to cut NASA’s science budget in half, eliminating future space telescope and other astrobiology projects. If that happens, Dr. Krissansen-Totton said, “the search for life elsewhere would basically stop.”
The last time we visited a new world, we spread smallpox and wiped out most of the intelligent population. It makes It easier to exploit all the newly vacant land.And they can all be taught:
a) Democracy
b) Communism.
c) Genocide is also an option.
I believe in humanity, sincerely and with all my heart, that when our descendants can reach planets like our earth, they will be able to use their accumulated experience wisely.
If we actually knew what those conditions are we would be able to produce life in a test-tube. I should also point out that even the simplest life here on earth is DNA based which is extreme complex, not likely to be put together by chance.This seems to support my intuition, based on the history of life on Earth, that simple life is very easy, fast, and abundant...practically any world with the right conditions will develop simple life within just a few hundred million years. But that complex life is probably extremely rare. That's what happened on Earth...as soon as the planet cooled and stopped being bombarded with meteors, life formed quickly. But complex life did not appear on Earth until toward the end of the planet's habitable window.
On earth, dimethyl sulfide is an indicator of simple life. If this world is inhabited, it's probably completely saturated with simple life, but perhaps devoid of anything more complex.
And if life can emerge around a red dwarf just 120 light-years away, then it's everywhere in the universe.
This is really exciting. We're not alone
Yeah, not true.If we actually knew what those conditions are we would be able to produce life in a test-tube. I should also point out that even the simplest life here on earth is DNA based which is extreme complex, not likely to be put together by chance.
That's a pretty amazing telescope to be able to do that.We have possibly found microbes 124 light years away. If true
We can also be "not alone" in the solar system... for example, there may well be life on the same Europe.
Only life does not mean intelligence at all. Bacterial life is not very impressive.
The planet named in the article is a super-earth, more than twice the size of Terra, which is already creating a lot of problems... but more importantly, it is located in a red dwarf system, and these are not the most stable stars, the planet is in the tidal grip of its star, in other words, it is always turned on one side to its star ... all this is very unfavorable for life, especially for complex organics.
So, there's nothing to be happy about yet. We are looking further.
We don't really know what the conditions were, and even if we did it's not a given that we could do it in the lab. When I say that simple life probably happens quickly wherever the conditions allow, we are still probably talking about a wait time of several hundred million years, across the planet's entire surface and ocean depths.If we actually knew what those conditions are we would be able to produce life in a test-tube.
The simplest life on Earth was almost certainly nowhere near as complex as DNA. This would have come later, after RNA. The earliest life was probably just some organic molecules that combined in a way that allowed very bad, rudimentary self-replication.I should also point out that even the simplest life here on earth is DNA based which is extreme complex, not likely to be put together by chance.
This is really exciting. We're not alone
The fastest spacecraft we have launched to date would take over 75,000 years to reach K12-18 b, where there may be microbes.
We're still alone.
It is far too far away to ever have direct impact on EarthThis is really exciting. We're not alone
So if we set out today those creatures that were algae 124 years ago might meet us half-way.NASA’s Parker Solar Probe: The Fastest Spacecraft Ever Just Skimmed the Sun at 430,000 MPH
NASA's Parker Solar Probe just screamed past the Sun for the 23rd time, once again matching its own records for closest approach and fastest human-made object. Zooming through space at 430,000 mph and skimming just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface, the probe is in perfect health and sendiscitechdaily.com
actually traveling 124 light-years at a speed of 430,000 miles per hour would take approximately 193,300 years
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