Scientist behind extraterrestrial life discovery speak to Sky News

Researchers here in the UK say they have found the strongest sign yet of possible life beyond our solar system They've done so by detecting the chemical footprint of gases and an alien planet's atmosphere that on earth Only produced by living organisms. We're joined now by the lead researcher on the study Niki Madhusen a professor of astrophysicists astrophysicists Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge a pleasure to have you with us. So talk to us about this gas You've discovered like I say on earth. It's it's associated with bacteria and marine organisms That's right. Dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide one of two gases, which we have Found evidence for are solely from life here on earth Although we want to be extremely careful in making sure that this is also a from life elsewhere So far studies have shown that to be the case, but we want to remain open Talk to us about how you've made a discovery on a planet 700 trillion miles away Yeah, so this the method is called the transit method. We have used the James Webb Space Telescope the most powerful Observatory in space ever built by us by humans This is what is known as the transit technique which is when the planet goes in front of the star some of that starlight passes through the atmosphere of the planet before reaching the Telescope and imprinted on that starlight is absorption from the molecules in the planets atmosphere So using very high precision observations We're able to tease out what that the quantity of that absorption and from that we can tell which molecules are causing that absorption So it's phenomenal that we're able to do that right now on a habitable zone planet 120 plus light-years away This is this is remarkable so that the light emitted from the the small Sun that this planets orbiting is heading towards the James Webb telescope as that planet passes Through that that stream of light the atmosphere of the planet alters the the composition of the light and you can detect those changes Yeah, you alter this Yeah The shape of the spectrum of the light that you're seeing from the star and then we can detect that Can you detect other things in those light signals? Can you detect maybe the temperature of this planet the atmospheric pressure the amount of other? Gases carbon dioxide oxygen that might help to reaffirm the fact that there could be life-supporting conditions Yes, indeed. Actually two years ago in 2023 We reported the first detections of carbon-bearing molecules in the same planet within with the same technique But with an entirely different instrument we detected methane and carbon dioxide and we did not detect some molecules like ammonia and carbon monoxide So to this date over the last two years there has been a lot of debate on what those What that composition means and the only explanation currently that explains all the data is one of a Haitian world an ocean world with a hydrogen rich atmosphere And we had predicted that that is a condition that is an environmental condition that could sustain life We also saw a small hint of dimethyl sulfide in our last observation But now we went ahead and looked at a completely different Wavelength range with a different instrument on JWST and we are seeing a significantly stronger sign of the same molecule Which is what gives us the confidence, but still we don't want to stop here We want to make more observations and be really really sure that it is not a fluke We want to be better than like one part in a million a chance of it being a fluke So we want to be really sure but it is very very exciting and a landmark development in the field. Nevertheless Worth noting the images were showing our viewers are of artists impressions of what this planet could look like We're not showing actual footage of it and you talk there about the confidence and that's something that's really interesting here because You're currently working at a level of confidence that I think most people go. Okay. Well, that's it it's a it's a done deal, but you need to get to a level of confidence that is Almost unparalleled and it's in its strength of confidence Just talk to us about the number of dot nine nine nine nine nine point percent that you need to get to Right, I mean right now the confidence we have is at a ninety nine point seven percent Which means there is still a point three percent chance that this could be a statistical fluke but in scientific discoveries, especially like a discovery like this, which is completely game-changing for science and Transforming our understanding of the universe. We want to be absolutely sure because it affects science and society in so many ways so we want to go to a five sigma level where we want to make sure that there is less than one in a Million chance of it being a statistical fluke and then even if we detect the molecule It's where it will be very good news that that molecule is there and it'll be a very good sign of life But we still want to do more Experiments theoretical work to make absolutely sure that that sign is Uniquely from life as it is on earth and not from some other process that we may not even have thought of so far What what can you go what can you do to try and ascertain that to to try and find other ways that these gases could Have been produced are there Experiments that you can do here on earth to try and discount other ways that it's formed Yeah, yeah So experiments have have been done in the past to try these things But so far we haven't found a result experiment or a cosmic result Which can explain the amount of these gases that we are saying this is thousands of times more stronger than what we see here on earth So we have we don't have any experiment that that can do that right now that has done that in the past But we want to design more and more experiments to see if there's a mechanism That can do that and we want to do theoretical studies as well to find a pathway But but given the magnitude of result any investment of time and effort we make in this is totally justified Because if it holds true that will change our view of the universe forever, right? So the sky that we look at today is a physical sky physical objects planets stars galaxies But if you find that this is actually true it is due to life then what you'd be looking at is a living sky and that's a major transformation to the To us as a species. So so we want to make sure we do everything we can to make to to establish that You know, we don't make an early claim of life without doing our due diligence Like you say it would change our understanding our mindset our vision of the sky beyond our own atmosphere But without being too morbid the sad reality is we're struggling to manage to look after the life on this planet What tangible positive benefits can we derive if we do find? Bacterial or photo plankton life on a planet 700 trillion miles away what what can we do with that information to really further us as a species as a planet as as the earth floating around and It's massive dark of this Yeah, so so there are there are there are scientific implications and there are societal implications The scientific implication of course is the universality is establishing the universality of biology So the loss of physics and chemistry that we know today on earth We also know that they apply in the universe out there. We do this with cosmic experiments But biology has never been proven on a cosmic scale. So so it's a very radical Fundamental transformation in our sciences and what we study and how we view our universe So so there is that part and that would also inform how life originated here on earth, which is still an open question So if we can observe many planets with different conditions when whether or not they have life We could potentially piece together the puzzle of how actually and under what conditions life emerged here on earth So that's a scientific aspect but more on a societal level I think the fundamental transformation that has to happen and will happen Amongst our species humans some sooner than others is that for once we'll realize that we are all Representation of the same planet we are we are one entity And and that in my personal view that should bring us all together as as a society as a civilization Really fascinating stuff joining us live from Cambridge. Nikki Matusudan really appreciate you making time for us. Thank you so much Thank you for having me here