Shang-Min Tsai

A telescope stares at a planet 124 light-years away and sees gases in its atmosphere that on Earth are produced by microbes. The immediate thought: life. But it's not that simple. Planet K2-18b is a sphere wrapped in a thick layer of hydrogen. In such a layer, like in a giant chemical flask, reactions take place.

When the JWST telescope breaks the light of a distant exoplanet into a spectrum, it reads a chemical chronicle. But this chronicle is not a monolithic truth; it's an atmosphere constantly rewritten by the star's radiation.