Strongest 'hints' yet of life detected on distant planet

Paris: Astronomers announced Thursday that they had detected the most promising hints of potential life on a planet beyond our solar system, though...

Paris: Astronomers announced Thursday that they had detected the most promising "hints" of potential life on a planet beyond our solar system, though other scientists expressed scepticism.

There has been vigorous debate in scientific circles about whether the planet K2-18b, which is 124 light years away in the Leo constellation, could be an ocean world capable of hosting microbial life, at least.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, a British-US team of researchers detected signs of two chemicals in the planet's atmosphere long considered to be "biosignatures" indicating extraterrestrial life.

On Earth, the chemicals dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide are produced only by life, mostly microscopic marine algae called phytoplankton.

The researchers emphasised caution, saying that more observations were needed to confirm these findings, and that they were not announcing a definitive discovery.