On September 12, 2023, a historic moment was experienced with the POT announced the discovery of signs of extraterrestrial life on the exoplanet known as K2-18b.
Since then this star has become a matter of obsession for the scientific community and researchers, but not because of that particular site, but because of the fact that it has reached a historical point where the conclusion is inevitable:
It is only a matter of time before we scientifically prove the existence of life outside our Earth. In other words, we are very close to confirming the existence of what we could technically describe as “extraterrestrial life.”
This term is generally associated with aliens, flying saucers, and beings from societies much more advanced than our own. But the scientific community itself aims to find some place with particular qualities in its atmosphere similar to those of our planet.
Ultimately, this order of chemical composition to give rise to biological entities is the one we know and the one we conceive as “life.” But there are many more debates going on.
Extraterrestrial life after K2-18b
The BBC has just published an extensive and very interesting article in which he gives a tour and reflection on the issue of proving the existence of extraterrestrial life after the findings with K2-18b.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been a key element in this entire wave of findings, but what we experienced with the exoplanet would be just the beginning.
Since there are numerous missions and projects underway that are aimed precisely at the unavoidable moment where the existence of life on another planet or star would be verified:
“We live in an infinite Universe, with infinite stars and planets. And to many of us it has been obvious that we cannot be the only intelligent life that exists.
“We now have the technology and the ability to answer the question of whether we are alone in the cosmos.”
This is what Professor Catherine Heymans, an astrophysicist at the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh, says in the article.
A position that agrees with the vision of Professor Nikku Madhusudhan, from the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge.
Who assures, regarding the findings of K2-18b, that if more signs of life are confirmed there or on neighboring exoplanets, it would radically change the way we think about the search for life.
It’s all about time.