MAGENTA — The United States space agency (NASA) and the European space agency announced that the Hubble Space Telescope had observed the smallest planet outside the solar system. The planet named GG9827d is known to contain water in its atmosphere.
NASA and the European Space Agency said in a statement that planet GG9827d is 97 light years away, which is more than 900 thousand billion kilometers. Planet GG9827d has a diameter about twice that of Earth in the constellation Pisces.
“Detecting water on such a small planet is a historic discovery. “This brings us closer to a truly Earth-like world,” said research co-director Laura Kreidberg of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, as reported by SabaSaturday (27/1/2024).
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Officials from both agencies describe the planet as a mini Neptune with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere full of water or a warmer version of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Beneath Europa’s crust contains twice as much water as beneath Earth’s crust.
Bjorn Beinecke of the University of Montreal, who co-led the research, noted that GG9827d may consist of water and rock. He said there was a lot of water vapor on the small rocks.
“Before today, we were unable to directly monitor the atmospheres of such small planets, and we are gradually being able to do so,” he said.
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For three years, Hubble succeeded in analyzing the color wavelengths in the atmosphere of the planet GG9827d. This analysis was carried out when light from the star it orbited filtered through its atmosphere and was able to find the presence of water molecules, even though this planet has an atmosphere.
It is rich in water, but its temperature reaching 425 degrees Celsius makes it uninhabitable for life. This discovery paves the way for further research on planet GG9827d and similar planets, especially with the James Webb space telescope. The James Webb Telescope can use high-resolution infrared images to search for other atmospheric molecules, such as carbon dioxide and methane.
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2024-01-28 09:45:00
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