Distant 'waterworld' is confirmed

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

21 February 2012 Last updated at 15:44 GMT

Distant 'waterworld' is confirmed

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a new class of planet: a waterworld with a thick, steamy atmosphere.

The exoplanet GJ 1214b is a so-called "Super Earth" - bigger than our planet, but smaller than gas giants such as Jupiter.

Observations using the Hubble telescope now seem to confirm that a large fraction of its mass is water.

The planet's high temperatures suggest exotic materials might exist there.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17117030

[leftyohiolib]

1. science is cool

[Larkspur]

2. Is this the home world of the alien whales?

You know the ones that tried to contact Earth's whales in the Star Trek movie: A Journey Home.

[Ian David]

4. It could also be the planet the dolphins escaped to in Hitchhiker's Guide. n/t

[Ian David]

3. We were talking about this planet during a sci-fi convention last month.

Someone on the panel raised the possibility that there might be no clear boundary between ocean and atmosphere.

In other words, as you descend further down through the atmosphere, the water vapor becomes denser and denser, until at some uncertain point it becomes dense enough to be considered liquid.

[FogerRox]

6. Possibility - yes

2.7 times Earth diameter, 7 times the weight, looks like a gas giant, not a hydrocarbon gas giant, but an oxygen gas giant. if you will.

[FogerRox]

5. @200C likely on the close side of the stars biozone

2.7 times the diameter of Earth and weighs 7 times more.

[tridim]

7. Does "large fraction of it's mass is water" mean the planet is made of more than half water?

As in the water is VERY deep?

Or is just a large fraction of the surface covered with water?

[Motown_Johnny]

9. I don't think they can tell that

They can only tell size and mass and they deduce the amount of water based on that.

As far as I know there is no way to know how the water is dispersed.

[Soylent Brice]

8. K&R