Water found for first time on potentially habitable planet
Source: BBC
Astronomers have for the first time discovered water in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting within the habitable zone of a distant star.
The finding makes the world - which is called K2-18b - a plausible candidate in the search for alien life.
Within 10 years, new space telescopes might be able to determine whether K2-18b's atmosphere contains gases that could be produced by living organisms.
Details were published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy.
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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49648746
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,001 posts)FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)ffr
(22,669 posts)with them on board, we'll reprogram it to land on Pluto.
Problem
Solved.
Doodley
(9,088 posts)randr
(12,412 posts)Finally a place they can call home and start to take care of for once.
mudstump
(342 posts)OneCrazyDiamond
(2,032 posts)before booking the flight.
Duppers
(28,120 posts)Who thinks humans will ever go?
Igel
(35,300 posts)It's atmosphere is apparently something like 50% water. It's a super-Earth. It's likely there are conditions making the presence of liquid water on the planet likely, with an orbital period of 33 days (so that's its year--it's close to its star).
On the other hand, that's something far from proven--it's like saying "it's likely there are conditions making water ice likely on Earth." It's true, but that doesn't mean the Earth is a winter wonderland for creatures who'd die if temperatures went above 0 degrees C.
Ligyron
(7,632 posts)The distance is the problem.
Or, maybe it's our saving grace.
TroubleMan
(4,859 posts)It's 8 times the mass of the earth (7.96), approximately, but the surface gravity is inversely proportional to the radius squared. Its radius is 2.24 that of earth. So the gravity on the surface is 7.96 divided by 5.0176, which is about 1.6. So it's only 1.6 times the gravity of the earth on the surface.
That gravity is livable....probably very uncomfortable, but it won't kill you. Now that doesn't mean the atmosphere or radiation levels won't kill you.