NEWS ATLAS - Finding alien life won’t be as dramatic as a flying saucer landing on the White House lawn – it’ll be NASA scientists holding a press conference to excitedly show off a chart that’s incomprehensible to most people. Now, we’re a step closer to that boring but groundbreaking day.
Astronomers from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) have identified a new potential signature to look for in the atmospheres of exoplanets, which could indicate life is present. It’s a group of gases called methyl halides, which are made up of a carbon atom and three hydrogen atoms bound to a halogen atom.