from Hacker News

Scientists find strongest evidence yet of life on an alien planet

by prossercj on 4/17/25, 1:11 PM with 42 comments

  • by glenstein on 4/17/25, 6:51 PM

    Everything about it feels like BFD category for potential microbial life if true. And all the circumstantial details seem to point in the same direction. Potential hydrogen-rich ocean planet in a habitable zone, in alignment with theory about most plausible models for environments that might support life.

    It's got no known abiotic process for being generated, but a clearly understood connection to life, and is apparently very reactive and would have to be actively re-generated at mass scale to sustainably show up in an atmosphere.

    Nothing should be taken as proven, but it feels staggeringly plausible, and in my opinion would be the biggest of the "big if true" space stories I've ever seen in my lifetime.

  • by rbanffy on 4/17/25, 5:11 PM

    Surface gravity is a bit higher than Earth (12 m/s2), but totally bearable for humans. The smell of the atmosphere, on the other hand, will be something the first human visitors will never forget ;-).

  • by karim79 on 4/18/25, 12:03 AM

    I'm reminded of this wonderful talk from Clara Sousa-Silva[0], a 'quantum astrochemist'.

    At one point in this fascinating talk, she mentions that aliens would immediately be able to identify Earth as inhabited by life, because only a stupid and yet advanced civilization would be capable of creating CFCs. I highly recommend this video.

    [0] https://youtu.be/iN0uyGVNlkQ?si=unBC3Cj228fKJV4i

  • by tmshapland on 4/17/25, 3:04 PM

    I've been waiting to see atmospheric composition results from JWT. It seems like JWT was first put to work on other tasks. Anyone know of other studies from JWT like this?

  • by incognito124 on 4/17/25, 3:19 PM

  • by gamescr on 4/17/25, 3:22 PM

  • by 1024core on 4/17/25, 4:26 PM

    What about just looking for oxygen in a planet's atmosphere?

  • by ChrisArchitect on 4/17/25, 4:20 PM

  • by Simon_O_Rourke on 4/17/25, 5:35 PM

    And still there's uncertainty about intelligent life existing in Jersey City.