London. Astronomers have detected potential chemical signs of life on a distant planet outside our solar system, though they caution that more research is needed to confirm the findings.

The discovery, led by scientists at the University of Cambridge, revealed evidence of compounds in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b that, on Earth, are produced only by living organisms. Researchers say this is the strongest potential signal of life detected beyond our solar system to date.

Independent experts called the findings intriguing, but emphasized they fall short of proving the existence of life on another planet.

"It is the strongest sign to date of any possibility of biological activity outside the solar system," Cambridge astrophysicist Nikku Madhusudhan said during a livestream Thursday.

Using data from NASA and the European Space Agency’s James Webb Space Telescope, the team identified signs of dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide in the planet’s atmosphere. On Earth, both compounds are produced primarily by microbial life, such as marine phytoplankton.

K2-18b, located 124 light-years away, is more than twice the size of Earth and more than eight times as massive. It orbits within the so-called habitable zone of its star, where conditions could potentially support life. The findings were published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Madhusudhan emphasized that further analysis is needed to rule out alternative explanations for the presence of the compounds.

"We have to be cautious. There are still other processes, non-biological, that might account for these molecules,” he said.

David Clements, an astrophysicist at Imperial College London, called the findings “really interesting,” but stressed the complexity of interpreting exoplanetary atmospheres.

“While it does not yet represent a clear detection of dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide, it is a step in the right direction,” he said in comments released by the Science Media Centre in London.

More than 5,500 exoplanets—planets orbiting other stars—have been confirmed so far. Thousands more are candidates among the billions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone.

Launched in 2021, the Webb telescope is the largest and most powerful observatory ever deployed in space.

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