"Groundbreaking Experiment Reveals Clues to Earth's Existence of Life"
Thirty years ago, astronomer Carl Sagan convinced NASA to point the Galileo spacecraft's instruments at Earth, resulting in a paper titled "A search for life on Earth from the Galileo spacecraft." The paper changed how scientists thought about searching for life on other planets and established a scientific framework for detecting biosignatures. Today, as the James Webb Space Telescope explores exoplanet atmospheres, scientists must exercise caution in interpreting potential signs of life, as gases like methane and oxygen can have non-biological origins. Building a robust case for extraterrestrial life will require multiple lines of evidence and careful validation.
