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MannerAlarming6150 t1_ixewsh4 wrote

Reply to comment by rendrr in NASA’s Webb Reveals an Exoplanet Atmosphere as Never Seen Before by madneon_

I wonder if they can determine whether it's a life marker or actual factual life depending on what they pick up.

Of course, even if they determined that "yep, this is 100% organic life", they are probably still dead because of how long the light took to get to us. Sad.

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Rustyflyntlock t1_ixf3eml wrote

Oxygen in sufficient quantities isn't too bad of an indicator, from what I understand? There are other natural processes that create it, but usually it winds up binding up with other things rather than collecting in quantities like we see on Earth. Usually.

Or so i've read. I'm not an expert. I just have google and was curious a while back. May or may not apply to gas worlds. Periods of specific activity may create false positives, but seem to recall the article saying those are usually brief, geologically speaking.

Of course, if the life isn't oxygen breathing/producing then idk.

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rendrr t1_ixfeqgx wrote

Yeah. Basically it's Oxygen and other compounds usually created by life. But there is not a 100% "It's life" test, because those chemicals can also be created by other non-organic methods. The combination of detected "signs of life" would be a strong candidate, but never a certainty. Then scientists will spend next 50 or so years looking at the planet and doing more tests and maybe one day manifest "yeah, it's probably life." It's gonna be slow burn.

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pathanb t1_ixgb09y wrote

We are looking for exoplanets relatively close by, in astronomical terms. This specific star is about 285 light years away according to the article, barely a rounding error in evolution's timescale. If we see life, there is most probably life still there - we just can't interact with it in any meaningful way.

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