Scientist behind 'alien planet' discovery takes questions from LBC callers
17 April 2025, 19:27
Scientist behind 'alien planet' discovery takes questions from LBC callers
Last year an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge told LBC about a potentially groundbreaking discovery.
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Professor Nikku Madhusudhan believed he was about to discover alien life on the planet K2-18 b. It's a giant planet 124 light years from Earth, and the team working with the James Webb space telescope believe they've now detected fingerprints of life.
The findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and indicate the concentrations of DMS and DMDS are thousands of times larger than what you would find on Earth.
“There may be processes that we don’t know about that are producing these molecules,” Madhusudhan said. “But I don’t think there is any known process that can explain this without biology.”
Despite this discovery, actually proving that life exists out there is a very different proposition.
“Life is one of the options, but it’s one among many,” said Dr Nora Hänni, of the University of Berne.
“We would have to strictly rule out all the other options before claiming life.”
In the meantime, Professor Madhusudhan took the time to answer questions from LBC's inquisitive listeners.
