Cf. Sanz-Novo et al. The Astrophysical Journal Letters 980:L37 2025.

Thus it is clear and unsurprising that it can clearly have a abiotic origin.

It's very weak evidence, if it's evidence at all.

fromcomet tails to interstellar dust and gas. Having us be alone in the immensity of even the small part of the universe we can percive beggars the imagination.

The problem is that any life not evolving on Earth would most likely be unrecognizable to us as such, not even if it tapped us on the shoulder and said its equivalent of "howdy."

Will we ever know for sure? Not unless there's something recognizable on other planets or moons in our own system. We have a ghost of a chance of seeing it as alive.

My guess still says it's all alive. Nothing else makes a lot of sense.

In the article it states, "K2-18 b, which sits in the Leo constellation, is nearly nine times as massive as the Earth and 2.6 times as large and orbits in the habitable zone of its star, a cool red dwarf less than half the size of the sun."

This leaves much to the imagination...

Where in reality (when you do a bit of searching and thinking...)

1) K2-18 b is an exoplanet in the Leo constellation. It has a radius about 2.6 times that of Earth. It's roughly 9 times its mass.

2) This places it in the sub-Neptune category — likely with a thick atmosphere and not a rocky surface. Maybe a "watery" surface - but not necessarily water.

It orbits within the habitable zone of its host star (a cool red dwarf) that is less than half the size of the Sun.

While this zone could support liquid water under the right conditions, K2-18 b should not be considered "Earth-like".

All that said, It's still really cool that we can detect this data. I like it.