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Born in India in 1980, Nikku Madhusudhan — a professor at Cambridge now — led the team of scientists that used James Webb Space Telescope to find compelling evidence of biological activity on an exoplanet, K2-18b
Nikku Madhusudhan (L) is a professor of astrophysics and exoplanetary science at the University of Cambridge; (R) a handout artist’s impression shows the K2-18b super-Earth, the only super-Earth exoplanet known to host both water and temperatures that could support life. (Image: M KORNMESSER/ESA/Hubble/AFP)
Astrophysicist Nikku Madhusudhan, the lead scientist behind a landmark potential discovery of alien life on a planet 120 light years away, started his journey in science at the Indian Institute of Technology at BHU, Varanasi.
Born in India in 1980, he later studied for a master’s degree and doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. A professor at Cambridge, he led the team of scientists that used James Webb Space Telescope to find compelling evidence of biological activity on an exoplanet, K2-18b. An exoplanet is a planet that is not part of our solar system but orbits another star far away.
“The best explanation for our observations is that (exoplanet) K2-18b is covered with a warm ocean, brimming with life,” Madhusudan said at a press conference. He sought to moderate expectations, though: “It is in no one’s interest to claim prematurely that we have detected life.”
He said the discovery is not yet of actual living organisms but a possible presence of biological processes. Nonetheless, as lead author of the study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, he underlined: “This is a transformational moment in the search for life beyond the solar system, where we have demonstrated that it is possible to detect biosignatures in potentially habitable planets with current facilities.”
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, the team found the gas dimethyl sulphide (DMS), which on Earth is only produced by living organisms, such as marine algae in our oceans. In the most basic terms, if this gas is present in another world, that means a high possibility of life.
About 5,800 planets beyond our solar system (exoplanets) have been discovered since the 1990s, said a CNN report, adding that scientists believe some of these exoplanets could be ‘hycean worlds’, covered by an ocean and a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, thus a possible home for living organisms.
Madhusudhan was early best known for the concept of ‘hycean planets’, a term coined by him. He specialises in the phenomena of exoplanets, their atmospheres, interiors, formation mechanisms, habitability, and biosignatures.
At present, he is a professor of astrophysics and exoplanetary science at the Institute of Astronomy in the University of Cambridge. He has also worked at other top universities, including his alma mater MIT, Yale, and Princeton.
He has numerous awards to his name from the European Astronomical Society and the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics. His research bases itself on two major telescopes: the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope.
- Location :
Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
