I wrote a research note about the recent publication of the MIRI/LRS spectrum of K2-18b. The authors had claimed the detection of potential signs of life. I find the data to be consistent with a flat line 🔭🧪 - ThreadSky

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astrojake.bsky.social • 37 days ago

I wrote a research note about the recent publication of the MIRI/LRS spectrum of K2-18b. The authors had claimed the detection of potential signs of life. I find the data to be consistent with a flat line 🔭🧪

Reposted from arXiv bot (astro-ph)

Are there Spectral Features in the MIRI/LRS Transmission Spectrum of K2-18b?
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.15916
Jake Taylor.

Comments

asuarezmascareno.com•37 days ago

What a quick reaction! Honestly, a "two-ish sigma at most" was exactly what the "eye test" gave in the model they showed in the paper. With BF 3.3 I woul hesitate to call anything I work on even weak evidence. Getting that BF by chance is easy as soon as there's any unacounted source of noise

asuarezmascareno.com•37 days ago

In the past, we've refrained to claim detections and went for "candidate" or "tentative" detections with BF ~100... BF ~3 is a bunch of nothing.

sarahkendrew.bsky.social•36 days ago

How did you get the spectrum Jake? Was it available via the paper or did the team provide it? Don’t see it mentioned in your text.

astrojake.bsky.social•36 days ago

I got it from their paper, they provided a link. It should be footnote 3 in my paper. The uncalibrated observations are not public until tomorrow.

sarahkendrew.bsky.social•36 days ago

Ah, I missed the footnote - thanks! Yes will be interesting to see some more independent analysis when the data go public.

astrojake.bsky.social•36 days ago

I’m super excited, I WANT to find biosignature gases, independent lines of evidence will be so valuable :)

planetremco.bsky.social•36 days ago

That makes the point even stronger, I think. Using an ensemble of pipelines will likely only increase the error bar on any feature.

startswithabang.bsky.social•35 days ago

Good job!

astrothayne.bsky.social•36 days ago

Thank you. This is a great work.

This is being published in RNAAS?

astrojake.bsky.social•35 days ago

Yep, it will be published in RNAAS

darksapiens.bsky.social•37 days ago

📌

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