It's life Jim, but not as we know it... Jim being James Webb

[Mr Spock]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66786611

There's an outside (at the moment) possibility James Webb has found signs of life. Let's hope it can be confirmed.

[Grump Martian]

I've always wondered if the James Webb telescope would ever detect industrial gas emissions in atmopheres of exoplanets.

[Carbon Brush]

Sobering to think that only 30 years ago exoplanets were thought to exist, but nobody had actual evidence of their existnce.
Now we know of thousands (anyone know the latest count?) and even obtain atmospheric information.

[Naughty Neal]

Maybe the mysterious soup dragon does exist.

[RobertI]

Exciting times! 

[Astronomist]

Just saw this come up on MSN when i opened my browser, Interesting stuff! Not very useful in practise though, the planet is much too far away to ever go there.

[lawsio]

31 minutes ago, Astronomist said:

Just saw this come up on MSN when i opened my browser, Interesting stuff! Not very useful in practise though, the planet is much too far away to ever go there.

Or, perhaps more importantly, for them to come here! 🤣

[Zermelo]

It's certainly intriguing, though don't forget the "phosphine in Venusian atmosphere" business.

[Swoop1]

As long as the Klingons remain visible off the starboard bow I’m confident we’ll be ok.

[Macavity]

Just in case anyone was desperately wondering?!? (From a simple Google Search!) 😁

Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is the dominant volatile organic sulfur in global oceans.  The
predominant source of oceanic DMS is the cleavage of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP),
which can be produced by marine bacteria and phytoplankton.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25416398/
 

[Barry Fitz-Gerald]

Well, if DMS is confirmed it would probably make James Lovelock smile, (wherever he is) as it played a significant role in his GAIA hypothesis as a cloud seeding molecule and planetary climate regulator.

[StarryEyed]

Interesting that this was a prime candidate for study. Considering how quickly exoplanet detection ramped up you have to wonder if this sort of find is the first of many. Going to need that Habitable World Observatory sometime soon.

Edited September 15, 2023 by StarryEyed

[UKDiver]

I think we need to stop having an earth centric definition of life and not assume that earth biochemistry takes place everywhere. We don't understand much of what develops here let alone apply models to different systems. 

[Mr Spock]

Humans think they are the centre of the universe. 

[UKDiver]

41 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Humans think they are the centre of the universe. 

You're not wrong there. It's illogical.

[Barry Fitz-Gerald]

It is probably true that we should not expect our familiar biochemistry to crop up all over the universe, but then again maybe the RNA/DNA world was just the most succesful out of many different forms that populated the early Earth, and our microbial ancestors ate all the competition. By the time procaryotes appear in the fossil record, the Earth may have gone through several different forms of life with slightly different biochemical pathways, only for these to be wiped out by impacts during the Late Heavy Bombardment (or the equivalent) and each time life sprang up again and went through the same evolutionary process until only the most succesful solution to replication became dominant. I imagine that on most exoplanets minerals such as olivine, pyroxene, quartz and so on have the same crystallographic configuration as those on Earth, and even more complex hydrated minerals are the same there as here, as there are only limited ways to achieve a stable form with the atomic constituents available. If life also has a similarly narrow range of stable formats, and lets face it life is just another natural process and probably an inevitable one, then maybe the same or very similar biochemistry may be widespread - hence the significance of DMS, if the observations are shown to be correct. The down side of this would be that other worlds may also inevitably give rise to bipedal primates with an overwhelming sense of hubris through converent evolution.

[StarryEyed]

First things first an overwhelming body of evidence of basic life. Which is not something Webb can provide. Obviously life on earth is an example of one for context. You have to apply the scientific method and tick that box first before you can explore the other possibilities. If we don't then NASA might as well have said yes aliens are hot rodding around our atmosphere for kicks. But regardless more exoplanets with bio markers please.

[Barry Fitz-Gerald]

15 hours ago, StarryEyed said:

You have to apply the scientific method and tick that box first before you can explore the other possibilities

If you are talking hypothetically you explore any possibilities you like - its hypothetical!

[saac]

Flights of fantasy

Jim

[Barry Fitz-Gerald]

26 minutes ago, saac said:

Flights of fantasy

Well spotted.......... but,

Hypothetical means based on possibilities and not reality - not quite the same.

[Macavity]

Too late... Prof. Brian Cox has spoken (as requested?) 😉
https://twitter.com/ProfBrianCox/status/1702173161788195150

He's too late?!? I blame "Celebrity CAKE Bakers" etc. 😁
https://twitter.com/pubity/status/1702661539575243065

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by Macavity

[saac]

2 hours ago, Barry Fitz-Gerald said:

Well spotted.......... but,

Hypothetical means based on possibilities and not reality - not quite the same.

Anything is possible, it's  "probable" that makes them flights of fantasy  

Jim 

[StarryEyed]

3 hours ago, Macavity said:

Too late... Prof. Brian Cox has spoken (as requested?) 😉 😁

Did you know the physics students at Manchester refer to him as "Shiny shiny Cox"

[saac]

Hush, I will not hear a word against the blessed Brian Cox - can you tell I am fan  

Jim 

[StarryEyed]

Science wouldn't be as much fun without him that's for sure. Certainly the infinite monkey cage wouldn't work.