"Up to 50% of the atmosphere of K2-18b may be composed of water"
A faraway
planet in the constellation of Leo has been named the most habitable known
world beyond the solar system after astronomers detected water vapour in its
atmosphere.
It is the
first time a planet in its star’s “Goldilocks zone” – where the temperature is
neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist – has been found to bear
the life-sustaining substance in the blanket of gases that surround it.
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.
K2-18b, also
known as EPIC 201912552 b, is an exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf star K2-18,
located about 111 light-years away from Earth. The planet, initially discovered
through the Kepler Space Observatory, was later determined to be about eight
times the mass of Earth with a 33-day orbit within the star's habitable zone.
Discovery
K2-18b was
identified as part of the Kepler Space Observatory program, one of over 1,200
exoplanets discovered during the "Second Light" K2 mission. The
discovery of K2-18b was made in 2015 as part of observations of the star K2-18,
a red dwarf star with a stellar classification of M2.6 about 34 parsecs (110
ly) from Earth. The relatively low brightness of K2-18 would make it easier to
observe K2-18b's atmosphere in future observations.
In 2017,
data from the Spitzer Space Telescope confirmed that K2-18b orbited in the
habitable zone around K2-18. These observations led to significant interest in
continued observation of K2-18b through future observation programs.
Comments
Post a Comment