Washington DC, April 17 -- A team of researchers led by Indian-origin astrophysicist Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan claimed on Thursday to have found the strongest indication yet of extraterrestrial life, not in our solar system but on a massive planet, known as K2-18b, that orbits a star 120 light-years from Earth, New York Times reported.

A repeated analysis of the exoplanet's atmosphere suggests an abundance of a molecule that on Earth has only one known source, living organisms such as marine algae.

"It is in no one's interest to claim prematurely that we have detected life," said Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and an author of the new study, at a news conference on Tuesday. Still, he said, the best explanati...