Short Wave Could This Exoplanet Harbor Life?
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Dec 12, 2025 
Journalist Elsa Chang joins to explore the fascinating potential of TRAPPIST-1e as a candidate for alien life. She highlights its Earth-like characteristics and the crucial conditions for habitability, like atmosphere and water. Yet, recent studies reveal a lack of key gases, dimming hopes for alien atmospheres. The discussion shifts to how volcanic eruptions could have triggered the Black Death by impacting climate and food supply. They also delve into the surprising self-sacrifice behaviors of ants, revealing a complex colony dynamic.
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TRAPPIST-1e Offers Prime But Dimming Hope
- TRAPPIST-1e is an Earth-sized, rocky planet in its star's habitable zone and gives us one of the best chances to detect life nearby.
- Detailed observations found no CO2 and likely no methane, reducing the chance that it has an atmosphere supportive of detectable life.
Exotitans May Be Atmosphere-Free
- The study concluded that many Titan-like exoplanets (exotitans) likely lack atmospheres entirely, making them poor targets for life detection.
- Researchers emphasize that better telescopes are needed to resolve whether such worlds can host life.
Volcanoes May Have Helped Spark The Black Death
- New research links major volcanic eruptions around 1345 to climate downturns that triggered crop failures and grain imports into Italy.
- Those grain shipments likely helped spread plague-carrying rats and contributed to the Black Death's rapid arrival in Europe.