Alien Life: On the far-off planet K2-18b, Indian-British astrophysicist Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan and his colleagues at Cambridge University have discovered possible evidence of extraterrestrial life. Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) gases, which are formed by the marine algae that inhabit the ocean, were found by the scientists using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These gases are especially significant.
Who is Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan?
Dr. Madhusudhan was born in India in 1980 and graduated with a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi. He later attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to complete his master’s and doctoral studies.His doctoral thesis from 2009 focused on the atmospheres of extrasolar planets, or worlds outside of our solar system.
Alien Life Discovery:
He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, Princeton University, and Yale University, where he was a YCAA Prize Postdoctoral Fellow, after receiving his PhD. He began working as an astrophysics lecturer at the University of Cambridge in 2013 and remained there for four years. In 2017, he received a promotion to Reader in Exoplanetary Science and Astrophysics. He is now a professor of exoplanetary science and astrophysics.
He developed the concept of hycean planets, which are believed to be the most suitable type of planets for the search for life. Oceans lie beneath the hydrogen-rich atmosphere of the hycean planets. He investigates their interiors, atmospheres, and formation processes. He investigates biosignatures, sub-Neptunes, and Hycan worlds. With the aid of HST, JWST, and massive ground-based telescopes, He also studies radiative transfer, planetary chemistry, and atmospheric retrieval techniques for exoplanets.
He proposed in 2012 that the interior of the larger-than-Earth planet 55 Cancri e might be rich in carbon. He oversaw a group that examined the water levels in three hot Jupiters in 2014 and discovered less water than anticipated. He was a member of the team that found titanium oxide on the planet WASP-19b’s atmosphere in 2017. He investigated K2-18b in 2020 and discovered that there might be water on its surface.
Dr. Madhusudhan has received numerous honors, including the ASI Vainu Bappu Gold Medal (2014), the IUPAP Young Scientist Medal in Astrophysics (2016), the Pilkington Prize for Excellence in Teaching (2019), and the EAS MERAC Prize in Theoretical Astrophysics (2019).
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