Possible hints of life found on distant planet – how excited should we be?

By Ian Whittaker, Senior Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent University

Data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has shown that an exoplanet around a star in the constellation Leo has some of the chemical markers that, on Earth, are associated with living organisms. But these are vague indications. So how likely is it that this exoplanet harbours alien life?

Exoplanets are worlds that orbit stars other than the Sun. The planet in question is named K2-18b. It’s so named because it was the first planet found to orbit the…

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