Near a planet far, far away astronomers have found traces of chemicals that on Earth are only produced by living beings.

In an astonishing announcement, astronomers claim to have detected the most promising “hints” of potential life on a planet beyond our solar system, though other scientists expressed scepticism.

A Cambridge team studying the atmosphere of a planet called K2-18b has detected signs of molecules which on Earth are only produced by simple organisms. This is the second, and more promising, time chemicals associated with life have been detected in the planet's atmosphere by Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).