Good news if you’re interested in the future of humanity or the existence of life outside of our galaxy. According to CNN, waters flowing on a planet sitting around 120 light years from Earth might indicate it is in that sweet spot for creating life. As the outlet notes, the James Webb Space Telescope helped to make the discovery possible.
The exoplanet, K2-18b, closely orbits a “cool dwarf star,” K2-18, and lies in the star’s habitable zone or the Goldilocks zone. It carries such a name because it is the area where life is able to exist, mirroring our own planet’s location in the Milky Way.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The exoplanet is 8.6 times the size of Earth and is abundant in methane and carbon dioxide in its atmosphere. Along with the shortage of ammonia, this all supports the hypothesis by scientists that a massive ocean exists underneath the exoplanet’s “hydrogen-rich atmosphere.”
“Our findings underscore the importance of considering diverse habitable environments in the search for life elsewhere,” University of Cambridge astronomer Nikku Madhusudhan, the lead author of the paper announcing the discovery, said. “Traditionally, the search for life on exoplanets has focused primarily on smaller rocky planets, but the larger Hycean worlds are significantly more conducive to atmospheric observations.”
The planet has been on NASA’s radar since at least 2019 with the use of The Hubble Space Telescope. The Webb telescope can detect more and can search for the exact elements featured in a planet’s atmosphere. With K2-18b, scientists are very excited by the presence of dimethyl sulfide, an element that is only produced “by life” on Earth. “The bulk of the DMS in Earth’s atmosphere is emitted from phytoplankton in marine environments.”
Any discoveries beyond the current revelations will take quite a while, even lifetimes. And don’t think we’ll be running around on a new planet anytime soon. K2-18b lies 120 light-years from Earth. As the classic problem notes, even with a ship that can travel 5 miles per second, it would take 37,200 years to go just one light-year.
