this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2024
137 points (99.3% liked)

Astronomy

4119 readers
65 users here now

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
137
Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18 b - NASA (www.nasa.gov)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
13 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

This is about as close as we can get for carbon-based life habitable planet. 2.6 times the radius of Earth and mostly ocean, what sort of marine lives swim in there? Give me chills if they exist.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

I would say it's neither likely or unlikely. It'd simply unconfirmed. We don't have a solid baseline for establishing how widespread life is.

What we do know is that carbon and long-chain carbon molecules like methane are indicators. Nothing more.