Seeing Stars -Are we alone?

Last year a possible biosignature was detected for an exoplanet known as K2-18b. 

When scientists studied the starlight passing through the exoplanet’s atmosphere they detected dimethyl sulfide. 

On Earth this is produced by microscopic life in our oceans so perhaps K2-18b is an ocean planet with marine life. 

However these are very early days in the identification of biosignatures on exoplanets and much more work needs to be done before we can certainly say that life has been discovered elsewhere in the universe.

New space telescopes launching in the coming years will allow us to learn a lot more about exoplanets.  

European spacecraft known as the Plato Telescope and Ariel Telescope will look for exoplanets similar to Earth and analyse the atmosphere composition to search for biosignatures. 

A US spacecraft called the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope will allow scientists to see much fainter exoplanets and and the Habitable Worlds Observatory will study Earth-like exoplanets to discover just how habitable they are. 

This telescope will even be able to look for biosignatures and determine if vegetation exists by spotting molecules that indicate photosynthesizing plants.

It is very likely that within the next twenty years we will detect life on an exoplanet.  The answer to ‘Are we alone?’ is closer than most people believe.