Before this paper, I would have said that the search for life on exoplanets is 20 years away. After this paper, I think the search starts now. That's huge!

And it's sad the media was largely misled by distractions of their own design, none of which came from the paper or the press release. (6/6)

On certain planets so alien, so different from Earth, JWST can be used to can look for its signatures today. Maybe in cloud biospheres, or in hydrogen-rich ocean worlds, so long as the atmosphere is tall enough, we can see it. And that means the search for habitability and life. (5/x)

Could there possibly be an ocean on this planet? Unlikely, but not impossible.

So what's the most exciting thing about this result? That JWST can tell us all these things! (4/x)

Does K2-18b have CH4 and CO2 in its atmosphere? Very likely.

Is the atmosphere hydrogen dominated? Almost certainly.

Is there DMS in the atmosphere? There is no evidence of it, even if the spectrum is consistent with its presence. (3/x)

I think this paper, Madhusudhan et al. (2023 arxiv.org/abs/2309.05566) is incredibly exciting, for reasons that the media has largely missed. (2/x)

I dream of such happiness... so far it is only a dream...

We just need to get Elon Musk to buy this thing. ;)