Harianjogja.com, JAKARTA – Water is the key to life. In a study billed as a potential breakthrough, the research team has found a way to test water on exoplanets and find planets that are habitable because they have sufficient water content.
The study has been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The new research comes from Caltech, MIT, and other institutions. Planetary scientist Renyu Hu at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the lead author.
Using a new computer model, Hu and his team found that about 10% to 20% of sub-Neptune could have oceans and be potentially habitable.
The researchers created a computer model of an ocean-covered planet orbiting a red dwarf star to determine which sub-Neptune might have oceans and even be habitable.
The researchers also looked at atmospheric chemistry details between worlds with thin and thick atmospheres.
On Earth, our atmosphere and our oceans are connected, they are responsible for the weather and climate of our world. Not surprisingly, they are also connected to the sub-Neptune exoplanet.
Earth and Neptune in size and mass, with thinner atmospheres of carbon dioxide or nitrogen would be the most likely to have oceans, according to Hu and his team.
A thicker hydrogen or helium atmosphere would cause the temperature at the bottom of the atmosphere to be too hot and oceans less likely.
Hu and his team hope other scientists will use their work as a starting point.
“The recent discovery and early characterization of a sub-Neptune-sized exoplanet that receives stellar radiation at approximately Earth raises the prospect of finding habitable planets in the coming decades, as some of these temperate planets may support oceans of liquid water if they has no (hydrogen/helium) and thus doesn’t overheat on the bottom of the envelope.” he said quoted from Earthsky.
Another recent study found that there may be an interesting class of exoplanets for this discussion, which are now called Hycean planets.
The Hycean planet is a mini Neptune or super-Earth that is up to 2.6 times the diameter of Earth, with a temperature of up to 200 degrees C (about 400 degrees F) and a thick hydrogen atmosphere. In some cases, according to research, these planets can also host global oceans.
Sounds contradictory, because a world with a thick atmosphere (like Neptune) may not have an ocean under its thick blanket of clouds.
This is a new field, and astronomers are still learning and debating some things. Overall, there’s a lot to learn about what this type of planet really looks like.
Source: JIBI/Bisnis.com
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