If Planet B exists, what might it be like?
CNN — Since the first exoplanets were discovered in the 1990s, many have wondered if we might find another Earth out there, a place called Planet B. Natalie Batalha, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has watched the field of exoplanet science grow and change since those initial discoveries. “I kind of really want us to be able to find life on something that looks not a lot like Earth,” said Nikole Lewis, astrophysicist and an assistant professor of astronomy at Cornell University. “Planet B, based on how we’re looking, is a planet with surface liquid water,” Batalha said. “Besides looking for biosignatures, I think what Webb might do better is look for signs of a habitable environment.” It’s also possible that if the conditions aren’t just right in other places, life may find a way to “exist in niches and maybe even find other biochemical pathways when hard pressed,” she said. Perhaps life on another planet may use methanol rather than water for biochemistry or we’ll develop different metrics and signatures for detecting habitable planets and life on them in the future, she said.
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