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Jump81of 100 · 124 light years from Earth

K2-18 b: methane confirmed, life not

On K2-18 b the James Webb telescope found methane and CO2. What was said about signs of life and what the 2025 analyses say.

Illustration of K2-18 b, a bluish planet beside its red star, by NASA, CSA and ESA; it is not a photo
Illustration, not a photo Image: NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI), N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University) (CC BY 4.0) · original

Curious facts

  1. Methane and CO2

    In 2023 the James Webb Space Telescope found methane and carbon dioxide on this planet, 8.6 times as massive as Earth and 120 light years away. 1

  2. The life signal, unconfirmed

    The same team mentioned a possible signal of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), a molecule that on Earth only living things make. Independent analyses in 2025 find no sufficient evidence for DMS, and one does not clearly see the CO2 either. The methane holds up. 12

K2-18 b in Orbit

In the game, K2-18 b is jump 81 of the route, 124 light years from Earth. Its logbook card says:

Logbook · Jump 81

JWST found methane and CO2 in its atmosphere

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What Orbit is like

Sources

  1. NASA, 2023. science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/webb-discovers-methane-carbon-dioxide-in-atmosphere-of-k2-18-b
  2. Luque et al., 2025. arxiv.org/abs/2505.13407

Checked between 8 and 11 October 2026.

Illustration, not a photo Image: NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI), N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University) (CC BY 4.0) · original