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Astronomers Detect a Possible Signature of Life on a Distant Planet

(www.nytimes.com)
168 points julienchastang | 2 comments | 16 Apr 25 23:20 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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smitty1e ◴[16 Apr 25 23:41 UTC] No.43711517[source]▶
> While inspecting K2-18b, Dr. Madhusudhan and his colleagues discovered it had many of the molecules they had predicted a Hycean planet would possess. In 2023, they reported they had also detected faint hints of another molecule, and one of huge potential importance: dimethyl sulfide, which is made of sulfur, carbon, and hydrogen. On Earth, the only known source of dimethyl sulfide is life.

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Intriguing.

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1. AIPedant ◴[17 Apr 25 00:03 UTC] No.43711678[source]▶
Technically that is the only natural source, it can be made industrially with hydrogen sulfide and methanol, both of which are very abundant in the interstellar medium and on gas giants (Neptune has large clouds of hydrogen sulfide). The reaction is catalyzed by aluminum oxide, which also occurs naturally. On a world with an aluminum-rich crust, I could see dimethyl sulfide being produced in volcanoes. It was striking that this planet had thousands times higher concentration of DMS than Earth; maybe it has vastly more algae, maybe it's purely geological.
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2. gamblor956 ◴[17 Apr 25 21:51 UTC] No.43722629[source]▶
And yet despite having vast quantities of the precursors, Neptune does not have detectable levels of DMS...