As a guy taking the “Great Filter” hypothesis seriously, I would definitely switch the captions in the meme.
Searching for signs of life on exoplanets is tough.
Submitted 2 days ago by Dav09@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/2ae25b49-0e3a-4f73-93f0-4d8ab0dfc672.jpeg
Comments
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 2 days ago
danc4498@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Please explain. I’m way too stupid.
chosensilence@pawb.social 2 days ago
my guess: there is an exoplanet, K2-18b, that was discovered to have an abundance of detectable biosignatures in its atmosphere. at the time, there wasn’t much in the way of another explanation that didn’t involve life. however, astronomers recently found a failed star that is filled with biosignature molecules… so… ah lol. now perhaps K2-18b has another explanation after all.
danc4498@lemmy.world 2 days ago
So much Astronomy drama!
Legianus@programming.dev 21 hours ago
Astronomer here, the “life detection” on K2-18b was dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and which is and remains a marker for life. What you get from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is raw data that needs to be treated and calibrated to some extent to be usable in scientific study. This is called data retrieval.
However, the lead scientist on this paper claiming they found DMS basically used his own very specific way to do it and found very very weak signals in that way. Other scientist tried to both reproduce it in the way he did it and also with their ways to retrieve the data, but couldn’t find anything. So it turns out, it was simply a misdetection.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Would be funny if that failed star was actually an alien megaproject but we think it’s a natural explanation that means a planet teeming with ancient life is assumed to be barren like the rest of them.
Is there a name for that, when something very interesting is mistaken for something very uninteresting? Not that a failed star full of biosignature molecules sounds uninteresting, do they have any explanation for that?
HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world 2 days ago
John Michael Godier will be disappointed
crunchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Methane in Earth’s atmosphere mostly come from cow farts.
Methane in other atmospheres, as far as we know, doesn’t come from alien cow farts.
There’s a bunch of stuff that’s made by life, but it can also be made by not-life.
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I believe the alien cow fart theory!
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Burps primarily as far as the cows are concerned.
StalinIsMaiWaifu@lemmygrad.ml 2 days ago
Biosignature- signs that life was present
Abiotic exponation- any explanation that doesn’t require life
Exoplanet- planet outside the solar system
Telescopes pick up light from these planets, we then analyse the light to see what elements/compounds make up their atmosphere. Say there’s a planet which has a noticeable increase in atmospheric carbon, the scientist in the meme is tempted to say it’s evidence of life (Forrest fire, industrialization, respiration), but it could be a geological process (volcanic eruption)
Skyrmir@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Look for free Oxygen, the only reason it sits around is because of life. Sure, there are lots of forms of life that won’t show up that way, but if you do see it, you know you found life.
icelimit@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
There are entire nebulae with just oxygen floating around.
Lemminary@lemmy.world 1 day ago
They’re obviously full of plants and algae!
Skyrmir@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Get Back to me when you find it on a planet other than Earth.
sbeak@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
Many elements up to iron can be produced from supernovae, including oxygen. And I’m pretty sure a supernova isn’t a very habitable place…
Skyrmir@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Just about every element comes out of a super nova. By the time it’s around a planet, Oxygen has made friends, usually Hydrogen, so it’s no longer free molecules.
crazycraw@crazypeople.online 2 days ago
it is until it isn’t.