Who is Nikku Madhusudhan, Indian-origin scientist who found possible alien life?

Alien life has been a subject of great interest, and humanity has long searched for evidence of co-inhabitants in the universe. A team led by Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan, an Indian-origin scientist, may have now found possible signs of alien life.

Dr. Madhusudhan and his team of researchers were studying K2-18b, a planet that is 120 light years away from our pale blue dot called Earth. Looking at the distant planet using the James Webb Space Telescope, the team found out that its atmosphere contained dimethyl sulphide (DMS).

DMS is a gas that is only produced by living things on Earth. Mostly, the marine algae present in the oceans are responsible for its production. So could that mean there is life out there on K2-18b? Dr. Nikku Madhusudan’s team is looking into it with even more zeal.

Meet Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan, the Indian-origin scientist who might have discovered alien life

Dr Nikku Madhusudhan was born in 1980 in India and went on to attend IIT (BHU), Varanasi, to get his Btech degree. Later, he relocated to the US to further his education. He received his Master's of Science (MS) and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Madhusudan’s field of study is exoplanets and he collaborated with Dr Sara Seager, a renowned exoplanet researcher, at MIT to write his thesis on ‘Retrieval of Atmospheric Properties of Extrasolar Planets’, published in 2009.

Dr. Madhusudhan is currently a professor at Cambridge University in the UK. His research mostly focuses on extraterrestrial atmospheres and their potential for supporting life.

He coined the concept of hycean planets, supposedly the best class of planets to look for life. The hycean planets have liquid oceans underneath a hydrogen rich atmosphere.

The K2-18b is a hycean planet and now it has shown signs of life. While it may still take a few years to definitively say that there is alien life on that planet, it is still a giant leap for mankind.