Scientists are increasingly hopeful that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may detect evidence of extraterrestrial life as soon as this year. The article explores the possibility, referencing the Fermi Paradox, the potential for life on exoplanets like K2-18b, and JWST's capabilities.
James Webb recently peered at an alien world that could harbor life. Scientists are starting to ponder the impact of such a seismic discovery.Chris Young’s Beyond Earth column explores the intersection of space technology and policy, providing thought-provoking commentary on the latest advancements and regulatory developments in the sector.The main reason for this can be explained by the Fermi paradox, which posits that we should have already discovered evidence of life elsewhere in space.
If only 0.1 percent of those planets contained intelligent life, that would mean there are a million alien civilizations in the Milky Way.to the Fermi Paradox, there is a good chance that intelligent aliens exist – we just haven’t found them yet. Simple microbial life is even more likely to exist. However, a paper last year questioned these results. Though it didn’t refute the findings outright, it suggested more work is needed toof DMS on K2-18b. In April last year, James Webb did train its instruments on K2-18b once again. For months, scientists have been poring over the data, which could provide compelling evidence that life exists on the planet.
What are the chances that James Webb’s data confirms the existence of alien life? Even the scientists who disputed the discovery of DMS on K2-18b urged more observation time. They didn’t rule out the existence of DMS on the planet, they merely stated that we need stronger evidence., “The signal strongly overlaps with methane, and we think that picking out DMS from methane is beyond this instrument’s capability.
That’s not to say scientists haven’t seriously considered the question. In 2022, a team from Cornell University publishedThe paper delves into the “realpolitik” of a scenario in which global governments react to the discovery of alien life. They suggest that, if there were any way to communicate, global governments might try to gain a communication and information monopoly with alien intelligence. This, in turn, would lead to international conflict.
ALIEN LIFE FERMI PARADOX JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE EXOPLANETS ATMOSPHERIC ANALYSIS
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