Possible Signature Of Life Detected On Exoplanet—Maybe | A Colossal Squid Video

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

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4.5 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

The Webb Space Telescope picked up traces of dimethyl sulfide on planet K2-18b. On Earth, the molecule comes from microbes and phytoplankton. Also, researchers captured the first confirmed video of a colossal squid swimming in its natural habitat—almost 2,000 feet deep.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Listener supported WNYC Studios.
0:11.2	This is Science Friday. I'm Flora Lichten.
0:14.6	Major galactic news this week, scientists may have detected possible signs of life on a planet right here in our galaxy.
0:23.9	Is this one of the best hints we've gotten that alien life exists?
0:27.9	We're going to talk about it.
0:29.2	Here to discuss this and other science news of the week is Anil Oza, science reporter at Statt and MIT based in Boston, Massachusetts.
0:37.0	Anil, welcome back.
0:38.1	Hello, hello.
0:38.9	No better way to spend a Friday.
0:40.6	Agree.
0:41.2	So this space is seems exciting.
0:44.2	Why do scientists think they've found signs of life?
0:47.2	Yeah, some Strombers are pretty excited that they've detected traces of dimethyl sulfide
0:52.7	and dimethyl sulfide on a planet that's light years and light years away.
0:56.7	And it's really exciting because here on Earth, that chemical can only be created by living organisms.
1:02.6	So this may be a hint that there is life on this planet.
1:05.9	How did they figure this out?
1:07.7	Yeah. So they used data from the James Webb Space Telescope, which was launched just a
1:11.7	couple of years ago, and that can be really far into the galaxy. And using data from the light of
1:17.8	different planets and stars, they can analyze that to know what chemicals are present there. And in the
1:22.7	past, they've seen some carbon-based chemical signatures and other things that could imply life.
1:28.4	But this one is really exciting because as far as we know, this can only be generated by living organisms.
	...

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