Water found on a potentially life-friendly alien planet

A super-Earth about 111 light-years away is “the best candidate for habitability that we know right now,” astronomers say.

In a first for astronomers studying worlds beyond our solar system, data from the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed water vapor in the atmosphere of an Earth-size planet. Although this exoplanet orbits a star that is smaller than our sun, it falls within what’s known as the star’s habitable zone, the range of orbital distances where it would be warm enough for liquid water to exist on a planet’s surface.

The discovery, announced this week in two independent studies, comes from years of observations of the exoplanet K2-18b, a super-Earth that’s about 111 light-years from our solar system. Discovered in 2015 by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, K2-18b is very unlike our home world: It’s more than eight times the mass of Earth, which means it’s either an icy giant like Neptune or a rocky world with a thick, hydrogen-rich atmosphere.

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4 Comments

  1. Truth
    September 13, 2019

    When you all gunnar realize space is fake. You never saw a real photo of earth neither of any other planet they are all CGI. Pull out photos of earth on Google and compare them, the all vary in size of continents ect.

  2. Truth
    September 13, 2019

    When you all gunnar realize space is fake. You saw a real photo of earth neither any other planet the are all CGI. Pull out photos of earth and compare them, the all vary; in size of continent ect.

  3. Annon
    September 11, 2019

    All of the planets have water to some extent. Earth is regarded as the water planet.

  4. Shaka zulu
    September 11, 2019

    There are many planets with life out there. It is just a matter of time. In a universe so immense beyond basic comprehension we are not so lucky to be only life. That would defy every logic of scientific probability. In the scale of the universe we are microscopic. Really nothing. I believe the biblical stories of ascension and clouds opening from the heavens are records of space exploits. We are not isolated in this vast planetary world neither are we hidden from them. We are surveiled. When he ascending into heaven to go prepare a place for us its because at some point earth will be destroyed and humans will need another planet to colonize. The sun is a dying star and as it does it continues to expand still hot devouring all in its path. Science and the bible is not seperate as people think. They are one in the same. God power is the hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, and the stronger gravitational electrical and magnetic forces. Let your mind explore the possibilities it is a gift.

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