NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may have just done the cosmic equivalent of sniffing something weird in the neighbor’s backyard and shouting, “Hey, that smells alive!” Scientists are cautiously excited about a funky molecule in the atmosphere of K2-18b — a planet 124 light-years away — that could be a sign of alien life… or just some interstellar seaweed having a moment. Either way, if this turns out to be real, Earth might need to start drafting some kind of universal welcome letter — or at least get our oceans ready for new pen pals.
