Prepared by: Mohamed Ezzedine
British astronauts from the University of Cambridge, using images taken by NASA’s James Webb space telescope, observed a planet covered by deep water, which they called “TOI-270 d”, from which water vapors, methane, and carbon dioxide rise. In its atmosphere, it is twice the diameter of the Earth, and 70 light-years away.
Professor Nike Madhusudhan, a professor at the university and the lead researcher of the study, said: “This chemical mixture is consistent with an aquatic world, where the ocean covers the entire surface, and an atmosphere rich in hydrogen. The temperature of the ocean reaches 100 degrees Celsius, and at high atmospheric pressure, the ocean can remain “It’s hot and liquid, but it’s not clear whether it will be habitable.”
He added: “The conditions of this planet will be different from Earth, because it is tidally closed, which means that one side is permanently facing its star, meaning that daylight is continuous, and the other is immersed in eternal darkness, which creates a severe contrast in temperatures.”
