New Delhi, April 17 -- Astronomers at the University of Cambridge have detected chemical traces in the atmosphere of a distant planet - signs that, on Earth, are produced solely by living organisms. The findings don't confirm the existence of alien life, but they offer the strongest evidence yet that the exoplanet K2-18b may have the right conditions to support biology.

Using data from National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the researchers found compelling evidence of two sulphides in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b. The findings have been published in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

On Earth, these two sulphides - dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and and its chemical cousin, ...