A team at Cambridge University have discovered potential signs of life on a planet called K2-18b which sits over 100 light-years away from Earth.

Space commentator Leo Enright told The Hard Shoulder that this particular planet has come under the spotlight before.

“They made a similar detection at this same planet a couple of years ago and it turned out to be a false alarm,” he said.

“They came back for another bite of the cherry, using a different instrument on the James Webb telescope.

“It’s actually an instrument that was built partly in Dublin; it’s more sensitive instrument.

“They now say they think they’ve detected what are called biomarkers, there are chemicals in the atmosphere of this giant planet that on Earth could only be created by living organisms.”

First images from the James Webb Space Telescope. Image: NASA

However, Mr Enright said “we’re a long way from proving this”.

K2-18b is 124 light years away from Earth and, while that may seem like a lot of time to us, Mr Enright said “it’s actually not that far”.

“It’s in our local neighbourhood, and I think what’s most interesting about it is that it appears to be a giant water world,” he said.

“It’s much bigger than the Earth, but smaller than Neptune.

“It’s a class of a planet that we simply don’t have in this solar system, but we see lots of them around other stars.

“This is covered in water, according to the scientists, with a thick hydrogen atmosphere.”

Space mission

According to Mr Enright, scientists have said that the signals they are seeing could be coming from microbes or plankton floating in the ocean.

He said that in order to properly confirm this, a mission would have to be sent to the planet.

“At the moment, with our technology it’s not possible at all,” he said.

“But, you know, it’s foreseeable that at some distant time in the future that there could be technology that would get to planets and star systems that are this close to us.

“So, we’ll have to wait really until we get a space probe there.”

Mr Enright said that similar announcements will likely follow this one as the telescope is pointed at other planets.

Main image: Planet and stars in outer space. Image: JG Photography / Alamy. 4 September 2019