Potential signs of life on distant planets sound exciting – but confirmation can take years

Discoveries of molecules in space that suggest extraterrestrial life are exciting, but they need to be taken with a grain of salt – an astrochemist explains why.

By: Olivia Harper Wilkins, Dickinson College, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: April 27, 2026

Words: 1,295

Last Updated: 3 months ago

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By Olivia Harper Wilkins, Dickinson College

Astronomers can use telescopes to find specific molecules in the atmospheres of neighboring planets, in nebulae – clouds of interstellar dust and gas – hundreds or thousands of light-years away, or in galaxies beyond the far reaches of the Milky Way.

So far, astronomers have found more than 350 molecules in the spaces between and around stars in just under a hundred years – the first …

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