Mystery AtlasNikku Madhusudhan
A University of Cambridge astronomer who led the 2023 and 2025 JWST studies of K2-18b and proposed the 'Hycean world' planetary classification the disputed biosignature claim rests on.
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Nikku Madhusudhan was used to analyse K2-18b — Madhusudhan led both the 2023 methane/CO2 detection and the disputed 2025 dimethyl sulfide claim.
People
Nikku Madhusudhan is frequently compared to Avi Loeb — Both are working astronomers whose extraordinary, technically-caveated claims about a specific object (K2-18b's biosignature, 'Oumuamua's origin) were amplified by media coverage far beyond what their own statistical confidence supported, drawing sustained pushback from the wider scientific community.
Nikku Madhusudhan is frequently compared to Jane Greaves — Both led peer-reviewed, statistically caveated biosignature-gas claims on a specific world, Venus and K2-18b respectively, that drew rapid, substantive reanalysis and pushback from independent research groups.