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#JWST

8 posts6 participants0 posts today
Public
Sean Lynch

Great summary of the ** Possible ** detection of dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide in the atmosphere of a distant planet.

On Earth these gasses are exclusively produced by ocean plankton. The Planet is between Earth and Neptune in size and appears to have liquid water.

This is not a definite detection, and there could be non-biological ways to produce these gasses. (ie this has been seen in comets)

npr.org/2025/04/16/nx-s1-53648

#science#astronomy#JWST
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Mark McCaughrean

The very definition of a clickbait headline.

If you read the article, you’ll soon discover that the only scientists “hailing” this result are the authors of the paper.

Everyone else interviewed for comment is way more sceptical.

A 3-sigma detection of dimethyl sulphide is interesting, if well below the significance used in particle physics, say.

But as others have said, it could readily have non-life origins too.

Caveat emptor.

theguardian.com/science/2025/a

A screenshot from the Guardian newspaper showing an artist impression of a blue exoplanet in space orbiting a red dwarf. The headline below reads: “Scientists hail ‘strongest evidence so far’ for life beyond our solar system”.
#SpaceSxience#JWST
Public
Andy

#K218b #Space #Astronomy #Life #Earth #ExtraTerrestrialLife #JWST #Telescope #SpaceTelescope #CambridgeUniversity #NASA #Planets #Planets #SpaceTravel #Science
Just a follow up on the article from the BBC I posted earlier today. It contains a few small updates regarding current and imminent space missions, and our ongoing search for extraterrestrial life. “Dragonfly” sounds very interesting, as do the missions to Europa…
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8jwj

Two treated images, one of someone with thumb up towards a second image of a James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam Image of the “Cosmic Cliffs” in Carina Nebula
BBC NewsThe truth about life on other planets and what it means for EarthCould discoveries of alien life ever change the human psyche in how we view ourselves and each other?
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Andy

#K218b #Space #Astronomy #Life #Earth #ExtraTerrestrialLife #JWST #Telescope #SpaceTelescope #CambridgeUniversity #NASA #Planets #Planets #SpaceTravel #Science
Very interesting, but don’t build your hopes up we’ll ever get there. The fastest thing we’ve currently built is the Parker Solar Probe, which travels around 430,000mph. To travel 700 trillion miles at the same speed, we’re talking around 186,000 years…

Telescope finds promising hints of life on distant planet bbc.com/news/articles/c39jj9vk

Blue planet in the Foreground orbiting a small red star
www.bbc.comPromising hints of life found on distant planet K2-18bScientists find new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.
Public
CosmicRami

You may have seen headlines today - such as in The New York Times - suggesting the possible detection of a biosignature on an exoplanet. It’s an exciting prospect, no doubt. But it’s also an extraordinary claim, and as the saying goes, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" (Carl Sagan).

While the molecule in question is associated with biological processes, it’s important to note that non-biological (abiotic) pathways for its formation exist as well (see: Reed et al. 2024 ApJL; Sanz-Novo et al. 2025 ApJL). These results are interesting, but far from conclusive.

Scientists work within a robust framework to test such claims. This includes:

- Peer review and replication
- Community feedback and critique
- Cross-validation through multiple instruments and techniques
- Avoiding sensationalism in science communication
- Building consensus through sustained investigation

I am looking forward to hearing more from the exoplanet and astrobiology communities on these findings before drawing conclusions.

In the meantime, the ripple effect of bold headlines - like "Possible Signs of Extraterrestrial Life" - has already begun. A friend at the dentist this morning spotted a very misleading headline about this on Channel 9 News!

This is where science communication becomes critical: managing public interest and excitement without compromising scientific accuracy.

We should use moments like these to show the process - how scientific ideas are proposed, tested, debated, and refined - to broader audiences. Whether we’re talking about space, climate change, or pandemics, this transparency is essential to building trust in science.

Aliens make for a great headline, but the real story is in how we do the science.

Screenshot of NYTimes article with a picture of Earth and teh headline that reads "Astronomers Detect a Signature of Life on a Distant Planet"
The search for life beyond Earth has led scientists to explore many suggestive mysteries, from plumes of methane on Mars to clouds of phosphine gas on Venus. But as far as we can tell, Earth’s inhabitants remain alone in the cosmos. Now a team of researchers is offering what it contends is the strongest indication yet of extraterrestrial life, not in our solar system but on a massive planet, known as K2-18b, that orbits a star 120 light-years from Earth. A repeated analysis of the exoplanet’s atmosphere suggests an abundance of a molecule that on Earth has only one known source: living organisms such as marine algae. “It is in no one’s interest to claim prematurely that we have detected life,” said Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and an author of the new study, at a news conference on Tuesday. Still, he said, the best explanation for his group’s observations is that K2-18b is covered with a warm ocean, brimming with life. “This is a revolutionary moment,” Dr. Madhusudhan said. “It’s the first time humanity has seen potential biosignatures on a habitable planet.”
#JWST#Astronomy#Astrobiology
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Ben Royce 🇺🇦

Astronomers using the #JamesWebbTelescope #JWST have found water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane on planet K2-18b

2.6x Earth radius, in the habitable zone (liquid water possible), 124 ly away

The cool part:

They also found DMS. Dimethyl Sulfide (probably, the signal is weak, they need to confirm)

you know DMS as "the smell of the sea"

We don't know of any geochemical processes that make DMS

The only process we know of that makes DMS, is life

👀

newscientist.com/article/24770

New Scientist · Astronomers claim strongest evidence of alien life yetBy Alex Wilkins
#Astronomy
Public
Andrea Luck

Ring Nebula as seen by JWST Space Telescope

Full size & more info: flic.kr/p/2qW1yL1
Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/AndreaLuck CC BY

Target: Ring Nebula, NGC6720
Distance: 2,300 light-years
Date: 2022-08-04 / 2022-08-08
Instruments: NIRCam, MIRI
Filters: F770W, F560W, F335M, F300M, F212N, F162M
Colours Assigned: B/W, Red, Orange, Green, Cyan, Blue
PI: Michael Barlow
PI Institution: University College London
Proposal ID: 1558

A glowing, circular nebula with a bright, textured outer ring that fades into a dark background filled with stars. The center of the ring is a smooth, teal-blue area with faint, cloudy structures and small bright points. The ring itself appears reddish-orange with intricate filaments extending outward like wispy tendrils. Surrounding the nebula, the dark space is scattered with bright white stars, some with distinct diffraction spikes.
#JWST#Astronomy#Space
Public
Arp Bot 🤖

JWST NIRCam image of Arp 142, also known as NGC 2936 and NGC 2937, or the Penguin and the Egg.

In this wide view, we see the Penguin (laying on its back) and the Egg, and the foreground edge-on spiral PGC 1237172. There are also a large number of distant galaxies, some seen as tiny spirals and ellipticals, and many appearing as dots.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
Source: webbtelescope.org/contents/med

Arp 142, two interacting galaxies, take up less than a third of the frame. At the top is NGC 2937, nicknamed the Egg. Its center is brighter and whiter. There are six diffraction spikes atop its gauzy blue layers. At the center is NGC 2936, nicknamed the Penguin. In this view it is resting on its back, facing up. Its beak-like region points toward and above the Egg. Where the eye would be is a small, opaque yellow spiral. The Penguin’s distorted arms and thin red dust lanes from the bird’s beak, back, and tail. The tail is wide and layered, like a beta fish’s tail. A semi-transparent blue hue traces the Penguin and extends from the galaxy, creating an upside-down U over top of both galaxies. At bottom center-right is another galaxy seen from the side, pointing at an angle. It is largely light blue. Its length appears approximately as long as the Egg’s height. There are several foreground stars with large, bright blue diffraction spikes. The wide black background is filled with tiny, extremely distant galaxies.
#ArpGalaxy#Galaxy#Space
Replied in thread
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Astro Hawk (Ian Kluft) 🚀🛰️

"James Webb telescope takes emergency look at 'city-killer' asteroid 2024 YR4 ahead of close encounter in 2032" by @LiveScience - #NASA #JWST observations confirm #asteroid #2024YR4 will not impact Earth on the Dec 22, 2032 fly-by. An impact on the #Moon🌒 is still not ruled out. Another JWST observation is scheduled for May before the rock disappears into the dark outer solar system for several years. livescience.com/space/asteroid #astronomy #PlanetaryDefense #PlanetaryDefence #LowFlyingRocks #space

Live Science · James Webb telescope takes emergency look at 'city-killer' asteroid 2024 YR4 ahead of close encounter in 2032By Brandon Specktor
Public
Mark McCaughrean

Since this morning, the NASA/ESA/CSA #JWST has been taking near-IR images of Sharpless 305, a star-forming region in the outer reaches of the Milky Way ✨

Below is an image taken with the ESO VLT many years ago in poor weather – the JWST images should be better 😉

When finished in a couple of hours, that'll be the last of my Guaranteed Time Observations, granted when I was selected as a member of the JWST Science Working Group in 2002 👴

It has been a privilege 🙇‍♂️

A picture of space showing a cluster of stars in the top-right corner surrounded by nebulosity, and a deeply-embedded protostar in the lower-left corner, also with nebulosity. The image has browns and purples against a black background, with horizontal streaks due to cloud and bright sources.
#SpaceScience#Astronomy
Continued thread
Public
earthling

Herbig-Haro 49/50 (Spitzer and Webb Images Side-by-Side)

This side-by-side comparison shows a Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Array Camera image of HH 49/50 (left) versus a Webb image of the same object (right) using the NIRCam (Near-infrared Camera) instrument and MIRI (Mid-infrared Instrument).

science.nasa.gov/missions/webb

#astrophotography
#Spitzer
#JWST
#NASA

The Webb image shows intricate details of the heated gas and dust as the protostellar jet slams into the material. Webb also resolves the “fuzzy” object located at the tip of the outflow into a distant spiral galaxy. The Spitzer image shows 3.6-micron light in blue, the 4.5-micron in green, and the 8.0-micron in red (IRAC1, IRAC2, IRAC4). In the Webb image, blue represents light at 2.0-microns (F200W), cyan represents light at 3.3-microns (F335M), green is 4.4-microns (F444W), orange is 4.7-microns (F470N), and red is 7.7-microns (F770W). NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NASA-JPL, SSC
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Flipboard Science Desk

At last, auroras have been spotted on every planet in the solar system, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope. The JWST’s powerful near-infrared spectrometer recently revealed Neptune’s elusive aurora in all its gently glowing glory.

@ScienceAlert has more:

flip.it/I_JI9r

ScienceAlert · First-Ever Images of Neptune's Eerie Glow Finally Reveal Missing AuroraThe most elusive planetary aurora in the Solar System has finally been revealed in all its gently glowing glory.
#Science#Space#JWST
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