The discovery of this planet made a scene: Encased in water, bigger than Earth and outside the solar system
Astronomers have discovered a nearby exoplanet that may prove to be the first planet to be covered in water.
The planet’s name is TOI-1452 b. The planet is slightly larger and more massive than Earth about 100 light years from our planet in the constellation Draco.
In a paper in “The Astronomical Journal”, researchers from the University of Montreal determined that the planet’s mass indicates that it is mostly composed of something less dense than rock, but denser than gas, a potential sign of a global ocean.
Draco constellation (tribunnewswiki.com)
# A planet with most of its mass is liquid
TOI-1452 b first caught the attention of astronomers with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or Tess spacecraft, which studies distant stars for dips in their light that could indicate an exoplanet passing in front of, while transiting, stars. .
Tess’ data suggests the existence of an exoplanet, but her observations are not definitive.
The orbit of the star TOI-1452 b is part of a binary star system, and Tess does not have the power to resolve individual stars in that system. However, the University’s Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic (OMM) observatory, along with new analytical methods, were able to confirm that TOI-1452 b exists.
“The OMM played an important role in confirming the nature of this signal and estimating the planetary radius,” said Cadieux. “This is not a routine inspection. We had to confirm the signal detected by TESS was really caused by an exoplanet circling TOI-1452, the largest of the two stars in the binary system.”
An instrument attached to the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii then measured the planet’s mass.
Unlike Earth, which is a mostly rocky and metallic planet with water covering about 70% of its surface, TOI-1452 b appears to be mostly, but not entirely, water, with about 30% of its mass coming from liquids.
It’s a sort of deep global ocean that’s more akin to the deep waters believed to lurk beneath the icy crust of Saturn’s moon Enceladus than Earth’s oceans; water makes up less than 1% of the mass of our planet.
Exoplanets are located outside our solar system.
Letak planet TOI-1452 b (youtube.com)
It’s still not certain that TOI-1452 b is an ocean world, and what that means for the chances of finding alien life in its waters, but the researchers note that the James Webb Space Telescope will soon be able to help penetrate the mystery.
James Webb Space Telescope (en.wikipedia.org)
2023-07-14 06:30:01
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