Scientists find strongest evidence yet of life on an alien planet

[What if...?]

Which is wrong since we can't prove that the chemical, if it even is that chemical, is caused by living organisms. So the status of earth as the only known planet to harbour life is not going to be about to change.

Yup.

And man couldn’t fly not too long ago.

It’s one thing to go “Hmmm. Interesting. We’ll see how this pans out.”

And another to go “NuhUh!!!!”

 

[slavablueberryjam]

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.

Europe DOES indeed have life on it. Thank you, very much!

 

[slavablueberryjam]

It is far too far away to ever have direct impact on Earth

It's relatively close to us, oddly enough.

 

[Gordy327]

I recently read NASA learned that Proxima Centauri has an Earth like planet in its habitable zone, with a mass x1.1 & +10% gravity of Earth. Most telling is the atmosphere has oxygen and methane which indicates biological activity. Although, they did not conclude there is actual life. But it is an exciting prospect.

 

[GIJane]

It's relatively close to us, oddly enough.

Close to us in the cosmic sense, yes, given the size of the universe. Close to us realistically, still no. 124 light years at the speed of light is.............124 years. One way. .248 years round trip. Which does not include running up to light speed (or more correctly 99.99% of light speed) and slowing back down on arrival. Not being a physicist I'm not sure of the time span in that case.

 

[GIJane]

I recently read NASA learned that Proxima Centauri has an Earth like planet in its habitable zone, with a mass x1.1 & +10% gravity of Earth. Most telling is the atmosphere has oxygen and methane which indicates biological activity. Although, they did not conclude there is actual life. But it is an exciting prospect.

Link? I'd like to read about this.

 

[MamboDervish]

Close to us in the cosmic sense, yes, given the size of the universe. Close to us realistically, still no. 124 light years at the speed of light is.............124 years. One way. .248 years round trip. Which does not include running up to light speed (or more correctly 99.99% of light speed) and slowing back down on arrival. Not being a physicist I'm not sure of the time span in that case.

The shortest distance to far off stars is through RFK Jr.s worm hole.

 

[Gordy327]

Link? I'd like to read about this.

Not sure i can find it now. It was from an article I happened to come across and it caught my eye. If I find it again, I'll post a link.

 

[Gordy327]

Close to us in the cosmic sense, yes, given the size of the universe. Close to us realistically, still no. 124 light years at the speed of light is.............124 years. One way. .248 years round trip. Which does not include running up to light speed (or more correctly 99.99% of light speed) and slowing back down on arrival. Not being a physicist I'm not sure of the time span in that case.

We really need warp drive. NASA or Space X needs to get on that.

 

[GIJane]

Close to us in the cosmic sense, yes, given the size of the universe. Close to us realistically, still no. 124 light years at the speed of light is.............124 years. One way. .248 years round trip. Which does not include running up to light speed (or more correctly 99.99% of light speed) and slowing back down on arrival. Not being a physicist I'm not sure of the time span in that case.

This does not include Time Dilation- basically the faster the traveler goes the more time slows for the traveler. For instance if a ship travels at 50% of C (light speed) and travel 1 light year it would take the ship 2 years to get the target in ships time. In non-relativistic time that might be (don't know the exacts) 20 years.

As to Gordy's post. Not having the way to control matter/anti-matter is an issue. Warp drive is a Star Trek term, like Hyperdrive/space in Star Wars.

"The drive is actually based on scientific theory (though I'm not sure which came first; real-world theoretical physics or fictional FTL), and is known as the Alcubierre drive. The idea is that the drive creates a "bubble" in space-time enveloping the ship. The ship remains stationary within this bubble of space-time; the bubble itself is then pulled through surrounding space-time. As the ship remains technically at rest within the space-time continuum, and it's space itself that moves, Einsteinian special relativity isn't violated." Source:: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/14156/do-ships-at-warp-experience-time-dilation

Not sure I buy all of that, but the idea sounds plausible

 

[rhinefire]

The whole idea of gaining warp speed is stupid. Yes, someday the earth will die but it is a long way off. It is stupid to race to Mars because we don't have the technology to take advantage of anything we find there in terms of minerals. Add to the conflicting ideas of who shall be entitled to what should we discover something. Will we have Moon Wars and Mars Wars? Stupid waste of money while millions here starve.

 

[Lord of Planar]

This is really exciting. We're not alone

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/exoplanet-biosignature-1.7512703

Ouch.

124 light-years away.

Who wants to travel there?

 

[rhinefire]

Many say it is begging for disaster to seek out other races because they factor all things and come up with we will be destroyed if they find us.

 

[MamboDervish]

The whole idea of gaining warp speed is stupid. Yes, someday the earth will die but it is a long way off. It is stupid to race to Mars because we don't have the technology to take advantage of anything we find there in terms of minerals. Add to the conflicting ideas of who shall be entitled to what should we discover something. Will we have Moon Wars and Mars Wars?

I agree in principle to much of what you wrote. There are dozens of space programs that would be considered "next" on a logical list of things to pursue for purely scientific reasons, but a permanent presence on Mars wouldn't make the top 50.

Stupid waste of money while millions here starve.

While that is often a fashionable observation to make, the two issues can never be conflated.

 

[Greenbeard]

Ah well.

New Studies Dismiss Signs of Life on Distant Planet

In April, a team of astronomers announced that they might — just might — have found signs of life on a planet over 120 light-years from Earth. The mere possibility of extraterrestrial life was enough to attract attention worldwide. It also attracted intense scrutiny from other astronomers.

Over the past month, researchers have independently analyzed the data, which suggested that the planet, called K2-18b, has a molecule in its atmosphere that could have been created by living organisms. Three different analyses have all reached the same conclusion: They see no compelling evidence for life on K2-18b.

 

[Argent]

Ah well.

It's not over yet. From your link:

"Last week, Dr. Madhusudhan and his colleagues responded to Dr. Welbanks’s team with a study of their own. They examined 650 possible molecules that might be in K2-18b’s atmosphere; dimethyl sulfide ended up among the molecules at the top of the list. “We’re exactly where we left off a month ago; it’s a good candidate,” Dr. Madhusudhan said.

Dr. Welbanks said that the new study by Dr. Madhusudhan simply provided more evidence that dimethyl sulfide does not stand out compared to other possible molecules on K2-18b. “In effect, this is a self-rebuttal,” he said.

It’s possible that the debate over K2-18b could be resolved within months. Last year Renyu Hu, an astronomer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and his colleagues made more near-infrared observations of the planet. They are now preparing their results. “It will include substantially more data than previously published,” Dr. Hu said.