Since it was launched and started operations in 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope has uncovered many secrets and the beauty of the universe. The telescope may well have outdone itself by revealing evidence of life on a world about 120 light years from Earth.
NASA states that the world in question is K2-18b, “a super Earth exoplanet that orbits an M-type star. Its mass is 8.92 Earths, it takes 32.9 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.1429 [astronomical units] from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2015.”
An M-type star is also known as a Red Dwarf.
According to Space.com, the James Webb Space Telescope found indications of dimethyl sulfide in K2-18b’s atmosphere using two of its specialized instruments. In a separate study, the telescope used a third instrument, which also detected the substance.
On Earth, dimethyl sulfide is most often created by phytoplankton and other marine microbes. K2-18b is thought to harbor a huge ocean.
The possible discovery on K2-18b is not the first time the James Webb Space Telescope may have uncovered evidence of extraterrestrial life.
In September 2023, the telescope picked up indications of carbon dioxide on Europa, the icy moon of Jupiter that has a subsurface ocean. The presence of carbon dioxide points to animal life in the subsurface ocean exhaling the gas, which is finding its way to the surface through vents in the moon’s ice layer.
Not everyone is convinced that the telescope has discovered indications of actual alien life. According to Ars Technica, some scientists have raised doubts. They are based on three questions.
First, is K2-18b a super-Earth with a large ocean? It might have a magma ocean, which would make it too hot to contain life. Or it might be a gas dwarf world, also unlikely to harbor life.
Second, the signal may not actually be dimethyl sulfide. The Ars Technica story says that dimethyl sulfide is, “the best fit out of the 20 chemicals considered in this paper,” but that “there are a whole host of other chemicals that could plausibly be produced on a planet like this that weren't included in this analysis.”
Finally, a number of chemical processes exist that can create dimethyl sulfide that don’t involve organic matter.
When, if at all, will we know for sure whether or not life exists on K2-18b? Perhaps we may never know. At the very least, confirmation resides far in the future, though one future planned space telescope might garner more data.
Discoveries by the James Webb Space Telescope and its sister Hubble telescope confirm the absolute folly of the proposed White House Office of Management and Budget cuts in NASA’s science programs. The Artemis program to send astronauts back to the moon, then to Mars and beyond, remains a priority. But Artemis is not the only thing the space agency can or should do.
Scientific American notes that the next great space telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman, is on the chopping block. The telescope is completed and nearly ready for launch and deployment in 2027. Its two main goals are to study dark energy and to continue to search for exoplanets such as K2-18b.
The Nancy Roman Space Telescope is also a prototype for the great space observatory after it, called the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which will look for signs of life in the atmospheres of exoplanets like K2-18b.
Hopefully, considering the universal condemnation of the proposed hacking and slashing of NASA’s science programs, the office will think again before issuing its final budget proposals. Barring a last-minute rise in common sense in the executive branch, Congress should be moved to restore the budget cuts.
The answer to the high cost of space exploration and science is better management and not mindless budget cutting. The speedy confirmation of Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator is very important for that to happen.
If the federal government will not restore the cuts out of a recognition that scientific discoveries have inherent value, then geopolitics may push the bureaucrats and politicians to reason.
Just as the U.S. can’t have the Chinese beating it back to the moon, the country should not tolerate its main international enemy discovering life on other worlds, not to mention all the other discoveries waiting to be made out there, because it has abandoned space science.
That honor should be reserved for the U.S. and its allies.
Mark R. Whittington, who writes frequently about space policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?” as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond,” and, most recently, “Why is America Going Back to the Moon?” He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.
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