←back to thread

417 points fuidani | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.205s | source
1. belter ◴[] No.43715138[source]
This is a terrible title. The original title was: "Astronomers have found the 'most promising signs yet' of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System"

"Astronomers have found signs of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System" means something completely different. Please @dang update or this looks like the Daily Mail.

It's an example of scientists acting irresponsibly. They might have found dimethyl sulfide but it can be produced abiotically.

Dimethyl sulfide (CH3SCH3, DMS) signatures were found in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and that is for sure not Times Square on Saturday night...: https://astrobiology.com/2025/02/on-the-abiotic-origin-of-di...

The planet looks more like a Neptune or Uranus than Earth type. They need to find multiple examples of different types of biomarkers, before contacting the press as they obviously did.

"Evidence for Abiotic Dimethyl Sulfide in Cometary Matter" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.08724

"On the abiotic origin of dimethyl sulfide: discovery of DMS in the Interstellar Medium" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.08892

Edit: I see title is now updated.