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Express Tribune
17-04-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
Strongest evidence of alien life on a distant planet has been found, claim astronomers
Astronomers believe they've found the strongest evidence yet for alien life—but they're being very careful not to jump to conclusions. Scientists studying a faraway planet called K2-18b have spotted chemical signs that could point to living organisms. Still, experts are urging patience while other researchers work to confirm the discovery and rule out non-biological causes. 'These are the first hints we are seeing of an alien world that is possibly inhabited,' said Nikku Madhusudhan from the University of Cambridge during a press conference on March 15. K2-18b was first discovered in 2015. It's about eight times heavier than Earth and sits in its star's habitable zone—the sweet spot where temperatures might allow liquid water to exist. In 2019, scientists detected water vapour in its atmosphere, sparking early hopes it could host oceans beneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere. But not all astronomers agreed on how promising the planet really was. In 2023, Madhusudhan's team used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to take a closer look at K2-18b's atmosphere. They found more signs of water vapour, plus carbon dioxide and methane—all ingredients that could hint at habitability. But the most exciting clue was a faint signal of dimethyl sulphide (DMS), a molecule that on Earth is only made by living organisms, mostly ocean-dwelling plankton. However, the signal was weak, and many astronomers didn't consider it enough proof. Now, the team has used a different camera on JWST, one that sees in mid-infrared light, and found a stronger signal of DMS. They also picked up signs of a related compound called dimethyl disulphide (DMDS), another chemical that's only produced by life here on Earth. 'What we are finding is an independent line of evidence in a different wavelength range with a different instrument of possible biological activity on the planet,' said Madhusudhan. The team says their findings meet the three-sigma level of significance—meaning there's only a 3-in-1000 chance the results are a random fluke. That's promising, but not quite enough to declare it a real discovery. In physics, the gold standard is five-sigma, which equals a 1-in-3.5 million chance of a mistake. Nicholas Wogan from NASA Ames Research Center says these results are 'more convincing than the 2023 results,' but agrees it needs confirmation from other scientists. The data will be made public next week, but Wogan warns, 'It's not just like you download the data and you see if there's DMS – it's this super complicated process.' Not everyone is convinced. Ryan MacDonald of the University of Michigan is skeptical: 'These new JWST observations do not offer convincing evidence that DMS or DMDS are present in K2-18b's atmosphere.' He adds, 'We have a boy-who-cried-wolf situation for K2-18b, where multiple previous three-sigma detections have completely vanished when subject to closer scrutiny. Any claim of life beyond Earth needs to be rigorously checked by other scientists, and unfortunately many previous exciting claims for K2-18b haven't withstood these independent checks.' Even Madhusudhan agrees that the claim isn't solid yet. 'We have to be extremely careful,' he said. 'We cannot, at this stage, make the claim that, even if we detect DMS and DMDS, that it is due to life. Let me be very clear about that. But if you take published studies so far, then there is no mechanism that can explain what we are seeing without life.' Wogan says more research is needed. 'Something like this hasn't really been studied. DMS in a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, we don't know a tonne about it. There would have to be a lot of work.' This uncertainty could keep K2-18b in the category of biosignature candidate for years to come. Sara Seager from MIT says, 'It may remain in that category for decades, since the question may never be fully resolved with the limited data exoplanets offer.' Still, Madhusudhan says the discovery is exciting no matter what. 'This is a revolutionary moment, fundamentally to me as an astronomer, but also to our species – that we have been able to come from single cellular life, billions of years ago, to an advanced technological civilisation which is able to peer through the atmosphere of another planet and actually find evidence for possible biological activity,' he said.
Forbes
03-04-2025
- Science
- Forbes
Flying Astrobee Robots On ISS Augur Guardian Spacecraft Of The Future
Superstar ISS Commander Suni Williams helps test out an Astrobee free-flying robot, outfitted with ... More mechanical octopus tentacles to capture dead satellites and hyper-speed space debris, as she orbits the planet at 28,000 kilometers per hour. Free-flying Astrobee robots now being tested on the International Space Station could give rise to incredible guardian spacecraft that halo the ISS and protect it from super-speed shrapnel threatening the lives of all its astronauts. Three years after an exploding cloud of shards from a Russian anti-satellite missile - speeding toward the ISS at 28,000 kilometers per hour - sparked NASA to order the Station's astronauts to seek refuge inside their escape capsules, leading robotics experts are conducting experiments that could one day lead to a futuristic defense against similar threats. A constellation of ISS spacefarers, including just-returned Station Commander Suni Williams, have been overseeing tactical demos of the fantastical bots. In their current configuration - resembling aliens that are part machine and part sea creature - they almost appear to have taken flight from a Transformers film, and from the future into the present age. The three Astrobees - identical triplets - now aboard the orbital outpost started out their lives with a remarkably different mission, says Jonathan Barlow, who heads the Astrobee Project at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, the American space agency's freewheeling fountainhead of invention and radical experimentation. Each Astrobee is outfitted with internal propellers to fly, along with three smartphone-class ARM processors and a suite of six imagers, including a high-resolution video camera and two leading-edge LIDAR time-of-flight sensors, that combined allow the airborne robot to map and navigate its surroundings. The International Space Station is a technological wonderland, and the globe's greatest platform to ... More test out next-generation space robots. Shown here is an artist's impression of the ISS. (Photo by NASA/) Initially, Barlow says, the highly autonomous Astrobees were designed as mobile cameramen that can glide across the Station and stop in mid-flight to film ISS astronauts, and as sophisticated platforms to host experiments devised by guest scientists across the outpost's allies. Each floating robot can be operated by NASA Ames ground controllers, or by the ISS astronauts via their laptops, who can program hours-long sorties for them to fly through, or tele-operate the droids move by move. Barlow, a vanguard aerospace research engineer who helped develop the Astrobees and their Robot Operating System-derived software, tells me in an interview that his Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames has joined forces with a dynamic space-tech outfit to transform the flying machines as precursors to a future stage of missions: capturing satellites that have exhausted their propellant or even out-of-control space debris that increasingly threatens the high-traffic rings of low Earth orbit. Inventors at this partner outfit - Kall Morris Inc - told me they've outfitted the Astrobees with next-generation biomimicry technology to empower the robots to capture free-floating space objects. They have engineered a complete metamorphosis of the ISS bots, which have been armed with an array of octopus-like tentacles, fitted with gecko-inspired adhesive pads, that can ensnare even spinning nanosatellites. This hybrid astro-octopus, they say, can now capture space objects measuring up to 6.5 meters in diameter - the size of the Webb Space Telescope's mirror - adhere to it with gecko 'clingers,' and propel it into an alternate flightpath. Fantastical Astrobee flying robots, enhanced with an array of octopus-like tentacles, test out ... More capturing simulated satellites floating across the Space Station. Starting last summer, onetime test pilot Suni Williams helped guide these Astrobees through a series of fascinating maneuvers as they chased and deftly captured simulated CubeSats floating across the Kibo module of the Station - all as forerunner flights to hyper-tech debris removal sorties in times ahead. Barlow's team at NASA Ames, and his KMI partners, liaised in real-time with Williams, a former Space Shuttle astronaut, as she oversaw these demonstration flights 400 kilometers above the globe. So far, the enhanced Astrobees have already captured more than one hundred 'target spacecraft' inside the Space Station, and a new sequence of these chase-and-seizure demos is slated to start in early April, just weeks after the arrival of a new contingent of ISS astronauts, says Troy Morris, who heads the Michigan-based KMI. Even as its cutting-edge robotics tech is tested across the microgravity platform of the ISS, Morris tells me, his skunkworks lab is developing a new spacecraft, called Laelaps, that will be equipped with more powerful Space Octopus features to rendezvous with and take control of dead satellites and spent rocket stages that now crisscross and threaten low Earth orbit. The robots and orbital flyers being developed by KMI are at the forefront of a nascent campaign - stretching from North America to Europe to Asia - to begin clearing heavily traveled orbital lanes of the spacecraft and shrapnel that could threaten future human spaceflight, the ISS and the space stations set to be lofted by independent aerospace operators. The Laelaps now being perfected by Morris's group might one day be deployed like a celestial ring of protectors around the ISS, prepared to capture any debris - from missile fragments to castaway rockets - determined to be on a precise collision course with the Space Station. The immediate focus of his studio, Morris says, is on demonstrating autonomous docking with and relocation of orbiting satellites and spacecraft that have lost their ability to maneuver. A target CubeSat is captured by an Astrobee robot inside the Kibo module of the ISS Yet much more complicated, potentially live-saving missions are being mapped out for the future, he says: 'The concept of deploying a fleet of autonomous satellites to safeguard critical infrastructure - such as the ISS - against collision threats is compelling and something we are exploring conceptually.' In a series of captivating papers, Morris and co-founders of KMI have pinpointed 198 rocket bodies, launched from the U.S. since the start of the Space Age and now spinning around the planet at up to 2000 kilometers in altitude, that would make optimum targets when the American government begins funding active debris removal operations. 'The population of artificial objects in Earth orbit has increased steadily since humanity began utilizing the space environment decades ago,' Morris states in one study. 'Currently the U.S. Air Force tracks over 44,000 objects larger than 10 centimeters in Earth orbit.' 'Should these objects collide,' he adds, 'debris clouds would form, setting off a domino effect of more collisions' in a potential orbital doomsday called the 'Kessler Syndrome.' Meanwhile, as his robotic spacecraft advance their ability to intercept runaway space objects, Morris says, KMI could 'provide our protective services to the ISS, other stations, and the growing needs of all space operators.' Back on the International Space Station, the re-engineered Astrobees are set to whiz through a new series of aerial war games, tracking and overpowering their hovering prey. After collaborating with iconic NASA aeronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on these zero-gravity exercises, Troy Morris says, his lab is set to team up with a new corps of ISS sojourners. Just-launched astronaut Anne McClain, who has extensive experience in drilling the Astrobees from an earlier trek to the space-lab, might be a strong candidate to lead the new round of tests with the revamped droids, Morris predicts. Back at NASA Ames, Jonathan Barlow muses that the future-tech progeny of the Astrobees might one day be deployed to shield human spacecraft, including the colossal International Space Station, from incoming threats moving at hyper-speeds. This next-generation potential to act as celestial sentinels, he says, 'certainly seems like a cool idea.' 'I think that something like that, you know, guardians outside of a space station could, yeah, could definitely happen.' Since being launched to the Station five years ago, Barlow says, the Astrobees have already spearheaded a spectrum of breakthroughs - including advances in human-robot interactions by connecting up with astronauts and aerospace wunderkinds of the future. The space-bots have generated circles of acolytes across American classrooms, Barlow adds, via boosters like MIT's Zero Robotics tournament, which challenges high school creatives to program Astrobees to race through a series of maneuvers with deftness and style. During the early rounds of these nationwide competitions, he says, these would-be operators of the robots code them to speed across a simulated ISS. Yet the world-watched ultimate round - the championship - he adds, 'is on ISS with real astronauts and real Astrobees.' Suni Williams lauds the tournament, and says she had a blast teaming up with students during the final Astrobee match on the Station. Iconic astronaut Suni Williams says she had a blast teaming up with young programmers competing to ... More maneuver the Astrobee robots across the ISS during the Zero Robotics championship staged by MIT During her first press conference back on terra firma this week, Williams suggested this orbital Olympics for aero-robots might also help NASA discover its astronauts, coders and inventors of the next generation. 'We did lots of experiments up there with kids and universities,' she said, 'and trying out new guidance and navigational control, and robots that were flying inside of the Space Station.' 'That is pretty awesome that you can really touch and talk to kids on the ground as you are doing experiments up there.' 'And they have their finger on the pulse of science experiments.' 'And they can understand that,' the superstar astronaut added, 'and think to themselves 'I can be part of this someday.''
