Scientists have found ‘strongest evidence yet’ of life on a distant planet

The planet is 700 trillion miles from Earth.

The evidence, described as 'new but tentative', shows that there may be life on a faraway world orbiting another star.

The detection is not at the standard to claim a discovery.

A team at Cambridge, who were studying the atmosphere of the planet called K2-18b, detected signs of molecules, which on Earth are only produced by simple organisms.

The planet is 700 trillion miles away and is two and a half times the size of Earth.

Whew!

This is the second time chemicals associated with life have been detected in the planet's atmosphere by Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

However, both the team and independent astronomers have urged that more data is needed to confirm the findings.

Pallab Ghosh, Science Correspondent for BBC was told by Cambridge's lead researcher, Professor Nikku Madhusudhan: "This is the strongest evidence yet there is possibly life out there. I can realistically say that we can confirm this signal within one to two years."

"The amount we estimate of this gas in the atmosphere is thousands of times higher than what we have on Earth."

Professor Madhusudhan continued to say the amount of gas detected in the single observation window 'surprised' him.

"So, if the association with life is real, then this planet will be teeming with life," he added.

Furthermore, he said: "If we confirm that there is life on k2-18b it should basically confirm that life is very common in the galaxy."