Space expert Dr. David Whitehouse says even simple bacterial life on K2-18b would be a major breakthrough, as it is the first step toward complex life.
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00:00Yeah, I want to ask you, Dr Whitehouse, what you think it would mean for humankind to know
00:07and to have proof of life on another planet.
00:11Well, if it does turn out that this is an ecology of some sort, then that is highly significant
00:16because the gap between no life and a bacterium is much greater than that between a bacterium
00:23and ourselves. It is the major step in the formation of life. So if we find ecologies
00:29on nearby planets, then yes, it does confirm what is a growing feeling among astronomers,
00:36that the universe could be well teeming with life and that the universe has it on the planets
00:41and perhaps in other areas as well throughout the cosmos, a fertile ground for life to develop
00:46in whatever form it could develop. So this is extremely interesting. It's pointing the right
00:52way to life in space.