“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” is an adage attributed to astronomer Carl Sagan, but it could have been said by any decent scientist since the scientific method became accepted in the 17th century.
Sagan was referring to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Given the social, scientific, and cultural impact of confirming the existence of E.T., reasonable certainty is a minimum requirement to answer Enrico Fermi’s famous question: “So where are they?”
The Fermi paradox posits that if life existed elsewhere in the universe in any great numbers, why is there no observable evidence of it? Mathematically, the chances of life arising on some other planet are as close to 100% as possible. But without evidence that proves life exists somewhere else, we’re left with mathematical certainties but no physical facts.
A tantalizing clue may have been uncovered by a team of astronomers studying extrasolar planets using the most powerful telescope ever built: the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and one of the authors of a new study published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal…
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