Researchers have identified an exoplanet that may have the right conditions for life . K2 - 18b is a peculiar world , much heavier than our satellite and quite a bit large , with an air rich in hydrogen . It is also located in the inhabitable geographical zone around its mavin where liquid water can exist . Researchers now trust that the major planet might just have the correct circumstance for liquid water .
K2 - 18b sits in between Earth and Neptune in raft and sizing , march between the two nebulous categories of ace - Earth and mini - Neptune . The planet intrigued researchers and the wider public after the detection of water vapour in its atmosphere . But that catching alone does n’t make the planet habitable .
As report inThe Astrophysical Journal Letters , researchers from Cambridge University have used computing machine simulations to institute what the atmosphere and the interior of the planet are like . This is crucial to establish potential habitableness .
" Water vapor has been detected in the atmospheres of a number of exoplanets but , even if the planet is in the habitable zone , that does n’t of necessity mean there are habitable conditions on the surface , " tether author Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan from Cambridge ’s Institute of Astronomy , said in astatement . " To found the candidate for habitability , it is important to obtain a integrated understanding of the interior and atmospheric condition on the planet – in particular , whether liquid H2O can be beneath the atmosphere . "
Using existing observations , the squad produced possible scenarios to excuse atmosphere . If the planet ’s hydrogen gasbag – an accrual of hydrogen and other volatiles that ring a rocky core – is too thick , the temperature and pressure on the surface of the potential rocky core might be too much for liquid water to exist .
" We wanted to know the thickness of the hydrogen envelope – how mystifying the hydrogen decease , " excuse atomic number 27 - source Matthew Nixon , a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Astronomy . " While this is a inquiry with multiple solutions , we ’ve shown that you do n’t need much H to explain all the watching together . "
The model evoke that the hydrogen envelop weighs at most 6 percent of the planet , although in many scenario is much lighter than that . The exciting part is that some scenario show that the satellite could have a fluid ocean at temperature and pressure similar to Earth ’s own .
This does n’t stand for that K2 - 18b hosts life or that it is certainly inhabitable but it show that super - Earths and mini - Neptunres ca n’t be brush aside a priori in the search for living outside the Solar System .
