The Meerkat of Science: Alien Life
A short while ago, I wrote a Meerkat Prompt regarding UFOs, and pondered the fanciful logic required to accept the idea of alien craft visiting earth. This is not to say I regard aliens as not being out there, because in this vast universe, with more galaxies than grains of sand on planet earth, and billions upon billions of stars and planets, it seems inevitable there must be more than merely humanity.
Of course, believing in alien life, even accepting the idea as a probable likelihood, is not same as knowing. As astronomers look to the cosmos, studying all sorts of fascinating phenomena, is the faint possibility of discovering evidence of alien life always on their minds? For some researchers, it’s an active field of study, a hunt as it were, and that hunt might – might – have yielded results.
K2-18b is located 124 light years away, one of numerous exoplanets in the Milky Way. It is approximately 2.5 times the size of earth, but nonetheless its size means it’s highly likely to be a rocky planet. Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed signs of a chemical signature that, on earth at least, is produced via only one mechanism: life. Two chemicals – dimethyl sulphide and dimethyl disulphide – produced by bacteria and marine phytoplankton on earth, have been detected in abundance in K2-18b’s atmosphere, leading to the possibility of a world teeming with life. Scientists are quick – and right – to point out that the evidence is not an absolutely certainty, but there is more confidence in the evidence than there has previously been.
If there is life on this distant world, then it would certainly have an impact on humanity. How might it alter our perception of ourselves, and our place in the universe? On the other hand, the presence of bacteria and plankton might not be taken as exceptional by some, even if confirmed. Still, definitive evidence of life on other planets would show the persistence of evolutionary processes, hinting at a universal constant. It would add motivation to the desire to explore the galaxy. It would lend itself to the idea that other, more sophisticated forms of life are out there.
More powerful, sensitive telescopes are in development, that will be able to probe the atmospheres of exoplanets in greater detail. These new telescopes will be able to tell us much more about the worlds we know are out there, and might provide more conclusive answers. In the meantime, it is certainly exciting to think we might have found evidence of alien life.
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