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There was a discovery made thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope by the Astrophysics Department of Cambridge University just in the last few days
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And they have discovered what they say is the best proof yet that there is that we are not alone, that there is a form of extraterrestrial life on a planet called K2-18b
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remember that name, K2 18b, that is a mere 124 light years away from Earth in a distant galaxy
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We don't know what form that life will take. It may be impossible to verify it, but they think
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this is the best proof so far that there is life elsewhere in another universe. Nick Pope is a
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former Ministry of Defense official who ran the MAD's division investigating UFO sightings in the
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1990s nick good afternoon to you hey yeah thank you for having me on um explain this discovery
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to us in layman terms well it a spectral ysis of of the light and and so they able to look at the atmosphere and they found molecules which so far as we know only on Earth arise through biological processes
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So, you know, this this really does seem to be the strongest evidence yet that there is extraterrestrial life out there
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Now, this planet is thought to be a water world. So we are probably talking microbial life and not an alien civilization
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But I mean, it's tremendously exciting. And of course, if there's just one other planet with life in the universe, it shows that we're not alone and it's got huge implications for humanity
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But we don't know who's keeping us company. We don't. But, you know, despite 124 light years being a staggering distance to us, actually, in galactic terms, this is right on our doorstep
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So it seems logical, given that the sheer numbers of stars out there, that if there's life this close, there's probably life throughout the universe
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And some of that life might actually be more like us an advanced technological civilization And that would be really exciting And what these scientists have discovered you know with the James Webb telescope is that there is an abundance of this kind of life
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We just don't know what kind of life it is, but there seems to be an abundance of it
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in order to create this number of molecules that they've been detecting
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Yes, the signal is so strong that really the science team that's done this
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say this this is is really looking like the place is full of life you know you could imagine
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a sort of ocean world with with all sorts of things swimming around in it and and i mean you
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know just the implications you know whether it's in terms of of people's religious beliefs their
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personal philosophy if if they take a more secular view but you know the idea that we're going to
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have to reappraise who we are, what our place is in the universe. I mean, I think it kickstarts a
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really interesting and important conversation. I agree with you, but I'm looking at the front
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page of all the newspapers and not one of them mentions this discovery. And I think, I mean
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it isn I mean I spoke to the lead scientists of this project last night on Channel 4 News and he said exactly what you said which is this is a watershed moment This is very exciting This kind of proves that we are not alone
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But because we can't envisage what the company looks like, you know, whether it's plankton
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you know, or little green men or women or whatever, you know, the story, as it were
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in our very simplistic human way doesn't move on. So what do we do with this information
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Yeah, I think we just have to carry on and hope that, I mean, this is a so-called biosignature. The holy grail would be a techno signature, discovering something like CFCs in the atmosphere of one of these exoplanets
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That would almost certainly tell us there's an industrial civilization there doing the sorts of things to the atmosphere that we do when we have factories and things
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And I think that would enthuse people more. You know, plankton and microbes, like you say, it's not on the front page
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Another civilization, I think that would be. Absolutely. Someone else polluting their planet and the atmosphere
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Yeah, that would certainly make front page, even if it's 146 light years from us
