4 ms·
I would like them to find methane & oxygen in an atmosphere. I don't have a clue really, but I think that would be pretty convincing evidence of life. I expect
by sgt101 4y ago
I would like them to find methane & oxygen in an atmosphere. I don't have a clue really, but I think that would be pretty convincing evidence of life. I expect that they are busy looking and we will get a result like that in the not too distant future - if the JWST can do it and if such atmospheres do exist in substantial numbers.
- wongarsu 4y agoExactly. Detecting CO2 is cool, but it's very stable and found in lots of places. Finding more reactive gases would be more exciting, because that might imply they're being replenished from somewhere, presumably either geological processes or life. And some gasses like oxygen don't really get produced by geological processes.
- teaearlgraycold 4y agoMake it oxygen, methane and water and I’ll happily consider alien life discovered.
- selimthegrim 4y agoThey found water vapor too according to NYT. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/26/science/space/webb-telescope-wasp-exoplanet.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/26/science/space/webb-telesc...
- nickff 4y agoMethane has been detected on Mars, and is not regarded as proof of ‘life’. In addition to bacteriological sources of methane, it can be produced through geochemical processes. I am not sure which, if any atmospheric gasses would be proof-of-life. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane_on_Mars https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane_on_Mars
- mohaine 4y agoI’m pretty sure lot of gasses would, just not the natural ones. CFCs and many other man made gasses have no viable non-alive natural sources.
- nickff 4y agoIm not sure what proportion of the atmosphere would have to be a certain gas to spot it. In addition, JWST doesn’t have enough resolution to see small spots on an exoplanet. I don’t think JWST could spot earth-like levels of CFCs.
- MAGZine 4y agoI'm not sure either, but considering the size of the ozone hole, I don't think it's unreasonable to believe it's possible. That said, we're both just guessing.
- HPsquared 4y agoThere's also a LOT of methane on Saturn's moon Titan.
- ben_w 4y agoIIRC, chemical bio-signatures are out of equilibrium chemicals: if some environment has only CH4 or only O2 that says basically nothing, but if it has both CH4 and O2 then (because these rapidly react to form H2O and CO2) the combination would suggest some process is creating methane and oxygen from water and carbon dioxide, which suggests[0] life. [0] I don't know anything else which does this, but that's mostly because I'm a software engineer and my highest chemistry qualification is a 22 year old GCSE grade B.
- sgt101 4y agoI have a Biology A level (!) and also gave up Chemistry A level after 1 year (!!) and I think that you are right.