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Hello, fellow Earthlings, Regina Barber here.

And today we're going to talk about some recent science news that made a big splash.

The claims that possible signs of life

have been found on a planet called K218B. This made headlines everywhere, including NPR,

where it was reported on by none other than our old pal, Nell Greenfield Boys. Hey, Nell.

Hey there. So, Nell, this was a new research done with the James Webb Space Telescope,

and basically researchers said that they detected a couple of sulfur-based gases that on Earth are strongly associated with life, such as marine microbes.

That's right, like phytoplankton. So think alien phytoplankton. The researcher said this planet could be an ocean world just teeming with life.

A press release called their results, quote, the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system.

Yeah, and all of this created like quite the uproar in astronomy circles.

I think some astronomers and planetary scientists were just taken aback at how all this landed in the public's eye.

Like, I was talking with Ryan McDonald. He's at the University of Michigan. For a lot of astronomers, the very first thing that we heard was like a message from a family

member or a friend, oh, hey, have you heard that aliens have been found? Spoiler alert,

he and other astronomers do not think that aliens have been found.

And they have some real issues with how this whole thing went down.

Today on the show, what happens when a team of scientists claim to have found hints of alien life?

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