Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have watch over two exoplanets that may be examples of a long - hypothesized planetary classification : awater domain .
The planet are lie with as Kepler-138c and Kepler-138d and are located in a star system 218 light - years away , consort to areleasefrom the European Space Agency . The squad , led by Caroline Piaulet of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets at the University of Montreal , used data from Hubble as well as NASA ’s Spitzer Space Telescope to determine that the earth are largely water , making them even wetter than our famously wet home planet . Their findings arepublishedin Nature Astronomy .
“ We antecedently thought that major planet that were a snatch larger than Earth were self-aggrandising balls of alloy and tilt , like scaled - up versions of Earth , and that ’s why we call them superintendent - Earths , ” said Björn Benneke , one of the field writer , in the ESA release . “ However , we have now depict that these two planets , Kepler-138c and d , are quite different in nature and that a tumid fraction of their total intensity is in all probability composed of water . ”
An artist’s rendition of the Kepler-138 system, with the Earth-like water world Kepler-138d in the foreground.Illustration: NASA, ESA, L. Hustak (STScI)
Kepler-138c and Kepler-138d are estimated to be more or less three times the size of Earth and double our own planet ’s great deal , but with much low-pitched densities .
The research team did n’t directly observe water on the planets , but by liken the observation data point to pre - existing models , they found that they should consist of materials with a density between the gases hydrogen and atomic number 2 and rock — and the probable candidate is water . With that said , the researchers believe these planets could have incredibly blistering atmospheres , meaning their open might not be teeming with vast liquid ocean .
“ The temperature in Kepler-138d ’s atmosphere is likely above the simmering point of urine , and we expect a wooden-headed dense atmosphere made of steam on this planet , ” enjoin Piaulet . “ Only under that steam ambience could there potentially be limpid water at eminent imperativeness , or even water system in another phase that happen at high pressures , called a supercritical fluid . ”
Some of the first unmediated grounds for the being of water worldswas found 2012 , but subsequent observations have been hard to come by . Astudy in 2017suggested that these water public could make up a bombastic percentage of potentially inhabitable exoplanets . Other inquiry in 2019found that exoplanets larger than Earth — like the Kepler-138 planet — could likely be H2O worlds with incredibly deep ocean .
While the late findings are exciting , the research squad is calculate forward to follow - up body of work using the Webb Space Telescope to further study the atmosphere of Kepler-138c and d.
AstronomyJames Cameron
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