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Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18 b - NASA (www.nasa.gov)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This is about as close as we can get for carbon-based life habitable planet. 2.6 times the radius of Earth and mostly ocean, what sort of marine lives swim in there? Give me chills if they exist.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Life on K2-18 b is still pretty unlikely. Or at least what we would call life... There have been signs of Dimethyl sulfide, which would be one of those bio markers.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

I would say it's neither likely or unlikely. It'd simply unconfirmed. We don't have a solid baseline for establishing how widespread life is.

What we do know is that carbon and long-chain carbon molecules like methane are indicators. Nothing more.