at the University of Cambridge using the James Webb Space Telescope say they have detected possible signs of life on a distant exoplanet.

>> The tentative discovery is based on the detection of sulfur based molecules, thankfully abbreviated to DNS in the atmosphere of the planet.

Here's professor Nick.

You do see down from the team explaining what they think they may have found.

>> s stance foot by month that find that this is a very important can because he had on up to Bms has produced uniquely by life, Michael, dozens in the ocean like phytoplankton.

And you because studies have predicted before the last 2 decades, that molecules like Bms would be very robust by a There's exoplanet systems.

>> And joining us now to help us understand the significance of all of this is Michelle Nichols, an astronomer and director of public observing at the Adler Planetarium.

Public observing sounds like a good gig.

Thank you for joining I'm OK, so before we talk about the possible tell us what we know about the Planet.

K 2.18, be.

All right.

So this is a planet that orbits a red dwarf star.

So that means it's a star that cooler smaller than our sun 124 light years away.

So far, but too far.

And it orbits in what's called the star's habitable zone, meaning the stars.

The plan is far enough away from the start that.

>> If there was water on the surface of the planet that it it had, it would have video of a chance to be like when the temperature could be right for that.

>> It's a cute little star, right?

But planet is is huge.

Yeah.

So the plant would be more like closer to Neptune sized in terms of mass so bigger than Earth.

Little bit smaller than Neptune.

So.

>> Ali, we don't have an analog to it in our own solar system.

Okay.

And that starts about half the size of our sun.

Yes, correct.

So as we heard Cambridge researchers, they think they detected potential signs of life in the atmosphere there.

What makes DMs so >> special as a biomarker well on Earth.

It is a material that is produced uniquely by life.

>> However, it's not the only way that you can get this material.

So if there's been a debate in the astrobiology community, is this a unique sign of life if we find someplace else, does that mean there's life there?

And the answer is maybe maybe not.

There could be other ways to make this stuff, especially on a planet that is so different from her own.

There could be some process is there that are completely different.

So it's still a debate as to whether or not it's a unique biomarker, right, just because it creates life on this planet does not mean that those biomarkers also create life for that.

Those what are they ares?

Dms also create life.

>> On that planet to yet be a material that's created by life.

So it would be that's given off potentially.

>> By life at least yes.

Exactly.

Correct.

Okay.

How was this detection made?

How they find So it's made by the James Webb Space Telescope.

So what happens is when the planet passes between the star and Earth it.

The light from the star will pass through the atmosphere of the planet.

Little tiny atmosphere is see because it's really far away.

And the substances in the atmosphere will imprint themselves essentially on the late that we get.

So we have to tease out this information of what's the light from the star.

What's the light that's passing through the atmosphere of the planet itself.

But from that, you can start to determine what this air is actually made of, which in itself is a pretty cool thing to be able to do.

And so they found a faint detection of a couple of guesses that might maybe be a biomarker, How confident do you think we can be in these findings?

if there confirms our know how that would be, how significant that be?

So how confident are we not yet scientifically confident if you were to go to a casino, it would be 99.7% sure that this isn't just a fluke.

It isn't just a random occurrence of of information.

That's good enough for casino.

Not good enough for science.

We need to be 99.

0.9, 9, 9, 9, 9%.

Sure.

And we're not there yet.

So there's still a lot of scientists going.

Hey, Sony, more data.

But even if they do say, yep, it's actually there.

They find enough information to say yes, there it still doesn't satisfy the question of how to get there and there could be some very non-life-threatening processes that could possibly produce this stuff on a world that is very different from our own.

What what level of proof would you need to see?

Yes, like what?

What would make what would make evidence of life >> you would need multiple lines of evidence.

It wouldn't just be finding this material may be finding other materials finding trying to figure out what the surface of this planet is even like.

>> Right now, there are 2 main camps.

It could be ocean world with a hydrogen atmosphere.

Okay.

Not too bad.

It could be a liquid magma covered world.

Definitely not able to host life.

So we need to figure out what the surface of this planet is even like in the first place.

So and then other pile on more information.

And when you start to get multiple lines of evidence that that this place could be hospitable to life.

Then you might be getting closer a mean.

It seems like it would have to take.

It would take a while to gather that evidence that it may be some advances in technology, correct?

Yeah, there may be technology needed that we don't have yet.

So lot more information may be needed in the future.

So it's going to take a while before people are satisfied with What do you think is the most likely way to do that?

Aside from what would the 124 your trip to get there?

Right?

Exactly.

At the speed of light can't I'd say try to look for it in our own solar system were more likely to find it.

He if it's here.

>> We're more likely to find it on a place.

That's a lot easier to get to in terms of time.

Maybe Mars, maybe Jupiter's moon Europa, maybe Saturn's moon.

And so it But all these worlds could have aspects to them.

That might.

No a little bit more easily had come at those multiple lines of evidence, get that direct evidence that maybe we could see this at some point in the future of fighting it here in our own solar system.

The a lot harder finding it so far away.

Why do you think this potential finding garnered so much excitement over the last week?

Everybody loves I think it's intentional.

Fraley got everybody's attention.

So shows the process of science.

I mean, it shows that, yes, we we come up with information, come up with some ideas, get more information about after advisors ideas.

You might have healthy debates about it.

You disagreements about it.

It's a science works.

And so that's that's the fun part about it.

And it's always fun to dream to see there be life out there.

And we do.

You like, I don't hold cities and that the governor only way of communicating the way.

Do we do what else we've got about 30 seconds left.

What else happening at the Adler Planetarium this week?

Well, come on down.

You can come in.

See our other world exhibit.

It's all about a planet.

General solar system and world's in other solar systems.

So come on down and learn about planets around other stars.

See, so if we don't have life out there than