James Webb Space Telescope Detects Potential Signs of Life on Distant Exoplanet
The James Webb Space Telescope, operated by NASA, has made a significant discovery suggesting that a planet beyond our solar system may harbor the potential for life. During its observations of K2-18b, an exoplanet located 124 light-years away from Earth, the telescope detected the presence of methane and carbon dioxide in its atmosphere.
K2-18b, originally identified by the Kepler space telescope in 2015, orbits a red dwarf star called K2-18, sharing a similar relationship to Earth's orbit around the Sun. With a 33-day orbit within K2-18's habitable zone, K2-18b receives a comparable amount of sunlight as Earth, implying similar environmental conditions. Notably, in 2019, water vapor was discovered in its atmosphere, further intensifying its examination as a potentially habitable worl...