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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: 0.461s | source
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JoeAltmaier ◴[17 Apr 25 00:41 UTC] No.43711880[source]▶
Maybe look for signs of chemistry that indicates industry? Teflon, by-products of steel-making, plastics, something like that? Signs of intelligent(?) life.
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viraptor ◴[17 Apr 25 00:58 UTC] No.43711978[source]▶
Chemistry that indicates industry is signs of industry. In earth timescales, industry existed for effectively 0% of the time. Life existed for significantly longer though.

Even if there's life in lots of places, there may be no industry as we understand it anywhere else in the universe.

replies(1): >>43712543 #
t0lo ◴[17 Apr 25 02:33 UTC] No.43712543[source]▶
The thing we keep on neglecting to mention is that life on earth actually happened pretty quickly in the time scale of the universe. I can't remember but I think we're one of the earliest points for life in the "broad" time scale. I wouldn't be surprised if stastically we're some of the first intelligent life, or the first wave.
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1. JoeAltmaier ◴[17 Apr 25 13:51 UTC] No.43716839[source]▶
There's talk of 'forever chemicals' produced by everything we do. Is evidence of industry going to just disappear? Forever is a long time.
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2. philipkglass ◴[17 Apr 25 17:26 UTC] No.43719809[source]▶
This is why "forever chemicals" is a poor term for those pollutants. They take a long time to decay under natural conditions (kind of like nuclear waste) but they don't literally persist forever.