Exoplanet hunters published a paper on Thursday in the journal Nature Astronomy announcing that we have now added another extraterrestrial globe to our reserve. Scientists have identified two exoplanets that appear to be wrapped in sheets of none other than water. The elixir of life, using NASA’s orbiting Hubble and retired Spitzer Space Telescopes.
Alien worlds of Kepler Pairs Discovered
These blue objects, known as Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d, circle a faint red dwarf star 218 light-years away in a solar system. They are about 1.5 times as huge and have masses that are nearly twice as hefty as those of Earth. The narrative of the Kepler pair is strangely paradoxical because these measurements give the impression that they are distantly related to one another on Earth.
Björn Benneke, a professor at the University of Montreal and a co-author of the research. He explained that we used to think of planets that were a little larger than Earth as enormous balls of metal and rock that looked like blown-up versions of Earth. For this reason, we called them super-Earths.
NASA online Exoplanet Catalog
In reality, the NASA online Exoplanet Catalog still describes Kepler d as a “potentially rocky” world. However, we have recently determined that these two planets, Kepler-138c, and d, are extremely different in nature. A sizeable fraction of their total volume is likely composed of water. Benneke said.
This represents the first reliable identification of exoplanets as water worlds overall. Astronomers have long theorized about this type of planet, but it has not yet been conclusively proven. It is significant to emphasize that, contrary to popular belief, seas are not expected to exist on these so-called water planets. We anticipate a thick, dense atmosphere made of steam on these planets because Kepler-138c and Kepler-138d’s atmospheres are likely warmer than the boiling point of water, according to team leader Caroline Piaulet, a Ph.D. student at the University of Montreal.
According to CNET’s Monisha Ravisetti, high-pressure liquid water or even water can only exist in a distinct phase known as a supercritical fluid. When there is a steam atmosphere present. According to the researchers, the Kepler twins are more like larger versions of Europa or Enceladus. That is water-rich moons that currently orbit Jupiter and Saturn, but are much nearer to their star. Piaulet predicted that Kepler-138 c and d will retain massive water vapor envelopes in place of an icy surface.
Names of the Exoplanets by NASA
Although technically speaking both of the researched exoplanets had already been found (thus their names). It wasn’t until today that scientists believed they had conclusive proof of the spheres’ composition. They needed further information for c and d despite having already shown that Kepler-138 b. Another object in the Kepler 138 red dwarf system, is a terrestrial planet with a mass of 0.0066 Earth.
The researchers were nonetheless able to utilize these NASA telescopes to compare the sizes and masses of the planets. The models projected up to 50% of the volume of these worlds. Despite the fact that water was not directly discovered.
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