Madhusudhan is lead author of a new scientific paper describing the findings that has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.Īnd even if scientists corroborate the chemical compound’s presence, that doesn’t guarantee life-forms exist there.īut this new evidence does expand scientists’ understanding of exoplanets similar to K2-18b. Further research is needed to confirm the presence of dimethyl sulfide, said astronomer Nikku Madhusudhan, professor of astrophysics and exoplanetary science at the University of Cambridge, in a statment. Researchers are not outright suggesting that K2-18b is crawling with alien life. “The bulk of the DMS in Earth’s atmosphere is emitted from phytoplankton in marine environments.” On Earth, dimethyl sulfide “is only produced by life,” according to NASA. The Webb telescope, which can detect infrared light invisible to the human eye, searched for exactly what elements are featured in the planet’s atmosphere.Īnd the latest observations of the planet also hint that a very special molecule, called dimethyl sulfide, could be present on K2-18b. The finding, described in a September 2019 study, helped scientists home in on K2-18b for further study. The Hubble Space Telescope initially spotted evidence of water vapor in the exoplanet’s atmosphere. The presence of these carbon-bearing molecules, along with a scarcity of ammonia, could indicate an atmosphere rich with hydrogen that surrounds an ocean world, according to a NASA news release.Ĭarbon is considered the building block of life-forms on Earth. An analysis of Webb’s observations found the planet has abundant methane and carbon dioxide in its atmosphere. The investigation with the space-based observatory, one of the most advanced astronomy instruments in operation, revealed that the exoplanet K2-18b may have some key features of a planet that could support bodies of water - and life.Ĭlosely orbiting the cool dwarf star K2-18, the exoplanet lies within the star’s habitable, or Goldilocks, zone and is 8.6 times as massive as Earth. European Southern Observatory/ESOĪstronomers solve the puzzle of an unusual pulsing dead star This pulsar has been observed to switch incessantly between these two states every few seconds or minutes. Eventually, blobs of this hot gas are expelled along the jet, and the pulsar returns to the initial, fainter state, repeating the cycle. This wind clashes with the infalling gas, heating it up and making the system glow brightly in X-rays and ultraviolet and visible light. In addition, there is a wind of particles blowing away from the pulsar, represented here by a cloud of very small dots. This gas accumulates in a disc around the pulsar, slowly falls towards it, and is eventually expelled in a narrow jet. This artist's impression shows the pulsar PSR J1023+0038 stealing gas from its companion star.
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