In a potential landmark discovery, scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have obtained what they call the strongest signs yet of possible life beyond our solar system, detecting in an alien planet’s atmosphere the chemical fingerprints of gases that on Earth are produced only by biological processes.
I thought I’d remembered reading about this before. Sounds like just a couple more years, and they’ll be sure this gas is there, which is huge, but not totally conclusive.
Personally, I’d bet it’s life. A big rocky planet with an ocean of phytoplankton sounds like our best bet for finding it. The scientists in the article are trying really hard not to be excited