Edward Schwieterman

Earth may have glowed purple 2.4 billion years ago, says NASA-backed study

tomwt — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 22:07:38 +0000

Earth may have glowed purple 2.4 billion years ago, says NASA-backed study tomwt Tue, 10/14/2025 - 15:07 More CNAS in the Media Melissa Ait Lounis | Dailygalaxy.com October 14, 2025

DAILY GALAXY - Earth’s familiar green landscape might not have always been so. According to new scientific research published in the journal International Journal of Astrobiology, our planet may have once shimmered in shades of purple, driven by a completely different form of life than we know today. This striking idea doesn’t just reshape our view of Earth’s past, it also opens new possibilities for what life might look like on other planets.

A Different Molecule Powered Ancient Life
Researchers Dr. Edward Schwieterman from the University of California, Riverside, and Professor Shiladitya DasSarma from the University of Maryland, both affiliated with NASA, have explored the idea that early life on Earth did not rely on chlorophyll. Instead, it may have used a much simpler molecule known as retinal.

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Edward Schwieterman

Will the James Webb telescope lead us to alien life? Scientists say we're getting closer than ever.

tomwt — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 20:41:31 +0000

Will the James Webb telescope lead us to alien life? Scientists say we're getting closer than ever. tomwt Fri, 09/05/2025 - 13:41 More CNAS in the Media Brandon Specktor | Live Science September 05, 2025

LIVE SCIENCE - Imagine a planet twice as wide as Earth, covered in an ocean that smells like sweet cabbage.

Every day, a faint red star warms this ocean world and the uncountable masses of hungry, plankton-like creatures that inhabit it. They rise to the surface by the billions, joining together in a living, floating continent larger than Australia — spewing out a pungent gas as they knit sunlight into food.

The sulfurous gas steams out of the alien bloom, filling the air so fully that a lone telescope floating 700 trillion miles (over a quadrillion kilometers) away can sense it — faintly, for just a few hours every month, when the watery planet glides in front of its small, red star. For those few hours, the alien algae of the pungent planet make themselves known to Earth.

It sounds like science fiction ... but is it?

For the past two years, this question has been the subject of intense debate among alien-hunting scientists, with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at its center. Captured in the powerful telescope's crosshairs is the planet K2-18b, located around 120 light-years from Earth. There's no question that the planet itself is real. But its surface conditions, as well as its likelihood of harboring life, remain contested.

...

Thanks to JWST, "we're learning more just in the last few years than we've learned in the preceding decades about the compositions of atmospheres outside the solar system," Eddie Schwieterman, an assistant professor of astrobiology at the University of California, Riverside who studies exoplanet habitability with JWST, told Live Science.

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Did the James Webb telescope really find evidence of alien life? Here's the truth about exoplanet K2-18b.

tomwt — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 22:05:58 +0000

Did the James Webb telescope really find evidence of alien life? Here's the truth about exoplanet K2-18b. tomwt Fri, 04/25/2025 - 15:05 More CNAS in the Media Brandon Specktor | Live Science April 25, 2025

LIVE SCIENCE - The trendiest planet in the universe right now is K2-18b, a potentially habitable world swirling around a small, red star in the constellation Leo. Located 124 light-years from Earth, the mysterious planet will never host human visitors — but a recent glimpse with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) hints that alien life may already thrive there in a vast, warm ocean.

In a University of Cambridge-led study published April 17, scientists using JWST reported the detection of possible signs of life in the alien planet's atmosphere, offering what a Cambridge statement called the "most promising" evidence yet of life beyond Earth. However, in the week since the study's publication, a growing number of scientists are already pushing back on this big claim.

"The statistical significance of the detection is marginal," Edward Schwieterman, an assistant professor of astrobiology at the University of California, Riverside who was not involved in the research, told Live Science in an email. "There are some reasons to be skeptical."

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Are there signs of life on alien planet K2-18b, or is it just a lot of hot air?

tomwt — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 14:35:52 +0000

Are there signs of life on alien planet K2-18b, or is it just a lot of hot air? tomwt Thu, 04/24/2025 - 07:35 More CNAS in the Media Nell Greenfieldboyce | NPR April 16, 2025

NPR - An ocean world that's teeming with microbes — and who knows what other kinds of life — is currently the best explanation for some chemical signatures that the James Webb Space Telescope has spotted in the atmosphere of a distant planet.

That's according to Nikku Madhusudhan of the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, who called his team's new findings "astounding."

"These are the first hints we are seeing of an alien world that is possibly inhabited," he told reporters in a press briefing. "This is a revolutionary moment."

...

Edward Schwieterman, an astrobiologist at the University of California, Riverside who wasn't part of the research team that worked on these new results from K2-18b, says that to him this detection seems "tentative."

"It is not a sure thing," he says. And while he thinks the researchers were right to report it, he also thinks it would not be surprising "if the signal went away" when other groups reanalyzed the data.

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Have signs of life been found in space? Scientists are calling that into question

tomwt — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 17:37:38 +0000

Have signs of life been found in space? Scientists are calling that into question tomwt Tue, 04/22/2025 - 10:37 More CNAS in the Media Julia Musto | The Independent UK April 22, 2025

THE INDEPENDENT UK - It’s one of humanity’s oldest questions. Are we alone? Is there life elsewhere in our galaxy or the universe?

Scientists last week made a stunning announcement that they had found the “strongest evidence yet” of life beyond our solar system. A team of astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope said they had detected the chemical fingerprints of the compound dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b.

On Earth, dimethyl sulfide is produced by microbial life, like phytoplankton that live in our oceans. Past observations of K2-18b had marked the first time carbon-based molecules were discovered in the atmosphere of an exoplanet in the habitable zone of its star. Scientists said that their findings indicate the possibility of a “hycean” world with an ocean “teeming with life.”

They also said that they needed more data.

...

Edward Schwieterman, an astrobiologist at the University of California, Riverside, echoed that concern.

“The planetary context is what matters,” he told Nature. If the molecules really are in the planet’s atmosphere, he noted, “we have to brainstorm novel ways of producing a lot of it through abiotic means and evaluate those possibilities before accepting it as evidence for life.”

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Scientists detect signature of life on a distant planet, study suggests

tomwt — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 20:36:14 +0000

Scientists detect signature of life on a distant planet, study suggests tomwt Fri, 04/18/2025 - 13:36 More CNAS in the Media Ashley Strickland | CNN April 17, 2025

CNN - A team of astronomers have detected what they call the most promising signs to date of a possible biosignature, or signs of past or present life linked to biological activity, on an exoplanet named K2-18b. But the study authors, and other experts, remain cautious and have not declared a definitive discovery of life beyond our planet.

A study detailing the findings was published Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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Eddie Schwieterman, assistant professor of astrobiology at the University of California, Riverside, is “somewhat skeptical but very intrigued and excited about what’s next.” Schwieterman, who has studied K2-18b in the past, was not involved in the new research.

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Scientists discover signs of possible alien life

tomwt — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 17:06:07 +0000

Scientists discover signs of possible alien life tomwt Fri, 04/18/2025 - 10:06 More CNAS in the Media Dan Cody | Newsweek April 17, 2025

NEWSWEEK - Scientists say they may have detected signs of biological activity on a planet outside our solar system, in what some describe as the "strongest evidence" so far in the ongoing search for life beyond Earth.

"This is a question humanity has been asking for thousands of years, and if you're witnessing it for the first time, it is a shock to the system," said Professor Nikku Madhusudhan, an astrophysicist and lead-author of the study. "And it takes a while to recover from that, from the enormity of it."

The discovery centers on K2-18b, an exoplanet more than 120 light-years away, where astronomers have identified chemical compounds in its atmosphere that, on Earth, are only produced by life.

While the findings are not conclusive, they mark a potentially significant step forward in astrobiological research.

...

Despite the excitement, researchers and outside experts urged restraint. Edward Schwieterman, an astrobiologist at the University of California, Riverside, said, "It is not a sure thing." He added: "It would not be surprising if the signal went away when other groups reanalyzed the data."

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Edward Schwieterman

James Webb Space Telescope could find signs of life on alien 'hycean' ocean worlds

tomwt — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 16:46:21 +0000

James Webb Space Telescope could find signs of life on alien 'hycean' ocean worlds tomwt Mon, 03/24/2025 - 09:46 More CNAS in the Media Paul Sutter | Space.com March 23, 2025

SPACE.COM - Hycean worlds, which are a possible kind of exoplanet with deep oceans surrounded by a thick envelope of hydrogen, could provide the best chance for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to detect biosignatures, according to a new study.

Those potential signs of life are a group of chemicals called methyl halides, which on Earth are produced by some bacteria and ocean algae.

"Unlike an Earth-like planet, where atmospheric noise and telescope limitations make it difficult to detect biosignatures, hycean planets offer a much clearer signal," said Eddie Schwieterman, who is an astrobiologist at the University of California, Riverside, in a statement.

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Alien life could be hiding in gases on faraway planets - breakthrough revelation

tomwt — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 15:26:04 +0000

Alien life could be hiding in gases on faraway planets - breakthrough revelation tomwt Mon, 03/17/2025 - 08:26 More CNAS in the Media Georgina Cutler | GB News March 17, 2025

GB NEWS - Scientists have discovered that alien existence could be hiding in gases on distant planets.

New research suggests extraterrestrial beings might exist in gases called methyl halides on faraway worlds.

Researchers believe this approach could provide a relatively quick and easy way to examine potential signs of life beyond Earth.

On Earth, methyl halides are typically produced by bacteria and fungi.

These gases consist of carbon and hydrogen atoms attached to a halogen atom.

Scientists believe they could be detected on distant planets using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

"These gases are a plausible output from their metabolism," said Edward Schwieterman, University of California Riverside astrobiologist and paper co-author.

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Weird planets may be the best place to look for strange alien life, according to new research

tomwt — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 22:53:49 +0000

Weird planets may be the best place to look for strange alien life, according to new research tomwt Thu, 03/13/2025 - 15:53 More CNAS in the Media Eric Ralls | Earth.com March 13, 2025

EARTH.COM - Scientists have searched for alien life for years, but space is huge, and technology has limits, making it hard to find answers. Traditionally, researchers have focused on finding planets similar to Earth, believing that conditions mirroring our own would be the best place to look for life.

However, a new study suggests that an entirely different type of planet could provide clearer evidence of living organisms.

Instead of focusing on Earth-like planets, scientists have identified a unique biosignature gas that could reveal life in environments that are vastly different from our own.

This discovery shifts the search toward larger, ocean-covered planets with thick hydrogen atmospheres, known as hycean planets, where certain microbes could potentially thrive.

Gases could be key indicators
The recent study, led by researchers from the University of California, Riverside, explored the unexpected gases that may signify life on exoplanets.

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Edward Schwieterman