Episode 298

Big news has just broken - astronomers claim they’ve detected the strongest evidence for alien life yet. The news has got the world’s media fired up with excitement - but is this really a “revolutionary moment”?

Astronomers studying the atmosphere of a distant planet called K2-18b say they have detected a molecule called DMS that is only produced on Earth by living organisms, so it’s thought life might be producing it there too. Hear from the lead researcher on this project, Nikku Madhusudhan of the University of Cambridge, who says “these are the first hints of an alien world that is possibly inhabited”.

But even if this biosignature detection is confirmed, would it be the slam dunk everyone thinks it is? In this episode, Alex Wilkins and Rowan Hooper offer a bit of balance to the discussion and explore how far this is from definitive evidence of alien life. We also hear the views of Laura Kreidberg, managing director of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.

To read more about stories like this, visit https://www.newscientist.com/

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