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WATER HAS BEEN discovered for the first time in the atmosphere of a planet with Earth-like temperatures that could support life as we know it.
Eight times the mass of Earth and twice as big, K2-18b orbits in its star’s “habitable zone” at a distance – neither too far nor too close – where water can exist in liquid form, scientists reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.
“This planet is the best candidate we have outside our solar system” in the search for signs of life, co-author Giovanna Tinetti, an astronomer at University College London said.
“We cannot assume that it has oceans on the surface but it is a real possibility.”
Of the more than 4,000 exoplanets detected to date, this is the first known to combine a rocky surface and an atmosphere with water.
Most exoplanets with atmospheres are giant balls of gas, and the handful of rocky planets for which data is available seem to have no atmosphere at all.
Even if they did, most Earth-like planets are too far from their stars to have liquid water or so close that any H2O has evaporated.
Discovered in 2015, K2-18b is one of hundreds of so-called “super-Earths” – planets with less than ten times the mass of ours – spotted by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft.
Future space missions are expected to detect hundreds more in the coming decades.
“Finding water in a potentially habitable world other than Earth is incredibly exciting,” said lead-author Angelos Tsiaras, also from UCL.
“K2-18b is not ‘Earth 2.0′,” he said. “However, it brings us closer to answering the fundamental question: is the Earth unique?”
First detection of #water in the atmosphere of a planet within the habitable zone by @HUBBLE_space. Paving the way for future #exoplanet discoveries by the NASA/ESA/CSA #Webb and our #Ariel mission.
— ESA (@esa) September 11, 2019
Details: https://t.co/dUdv1X8nQG
(📷: Artist's impression of planet K2-18b) pic.twitter.com/FykPCmv558
Working with spectroscopic data captured in 2016 and 2017 by the Hubble Space Telescope, Tsiaras and his team used open-source algorithms to analyse the starlight filtered through K2-18b’s atmosphere.
They found the unmistakable signature of water vapour. Exactly how much remains uncertain, but computer modelling suggested concentrations between 0.1 and 50%
By comparison, the percentage of water vapour in Earth’s atmosphere varies between 0.2% above the poles, and up to four% in the tropics.
There was also evidence of hydrogen and helium as well. Nitrogen and methane may also be present but with current technology remain undetectable, the study said.
Further research will be able to determine the extent of cloud coverage and the percentage of water in the atmosphere.
With reporting from - © AFP 2019
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Doesn’t seem to have the ability to dissolve the hostility against the arts itself though .
Is that how they’re trying to rationalise their relevance these days? Get a real job and pay some tax. Art is a hobby.
Yeah but what about the…… if fairness you speak the truth.
I’ll have to remember that next time I’m being mugged. Throw in a quick mime and all will be grand.
Bono inspired the saving of 60 million lives, what you do today?
I paid my taxes.
you must feel so proud ;)
Well if you’re some sort of artist or art student I can understand why you’d be so blasé about the idea of handing over 52% of the fruits of your labour in tax… because you’ve never done it.
Actually mate, been working since I was 16, just recently fcuked over like the rest of us, doesn’t mean I follow the stereotypical view that all artists do nothing nor do I blame them when it’s MY job I really hate
You should get a job you like.
I have one because I have a science degree.
That’s good for you don’t see why that’s any reason to hate on the artists for the taking 51% of your paycheque
how is they’re to blame?
or is it that you find yourself somewhat superior to what they do with your “science degree” ?
Postmodernism is vacuous and self-refuting.
Unfortunately the knuckle draggers rioting have no interest in art
Sad to see culture fall to make way for mass consumerism
Guess you could say its all going “one direction” ;)
If a tree falls on a mime in the forest does anyone care?
Cacotechny: A corruption or corrupt state of art. We’re all a corruption or corrupt state of art…..
The arts do indeed have that ability. But when everyone has a good laugh at themselves and they leave the experience they go out into the real world..
Arts have the ability to
bring people together in a common appreciation of all that is creative and wonderful.
and a hatred of mimes
Take money from tax payers who have no interested in the art they’re paying for.
Ye can’t deny that humanities are important for society at large, but…. pay some bloody tax!
How is it you know EVERY ONE of them isn’t paying any?
This article made me angry.
have your say