The discovery of water in the atmosphere of a distant planet: perhaps good for life

For the first time, a group of astronomers arrived to discover the water in the atmosphere of a planet called "K2-18b", giving rise to the hope of l & # 39; The existence of Earth-like worlds and the possibility of living organisms.

The announcement of the new scientific discovery in the results published in the scientific journal "Astronomy", making this distant planet a reasonable candidate to look for life. Scientists have stated that the water content of 50% of its atmosphere and that in 10 years, modern telescopes will be able to determine if the planet contains gases that can be produced by living organisms.

The principal investigator of the study, Giovanna Tenetti, a professor at the University of London, said that this discovery was "amazing". "It's the first potentially habitable planet where the temperature is right and we now know that there is water on it – it's the best candidate for life so far." said Angelos Tsiyaras, an astronomer at College.

The planet was discovered for the first time in 2015 by NASA's Space Telescope. It is about twice the size of the Earth and eight times its mass. It revolves around a red dwarf, a relatively cold star, less than half the size of the Sun, 110 light-years apart.

Red dwarfs produce much less heat than the sun, but the temperature of the K2-18b rises to about 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) while turning near its star, and the planet completes its orbit every 33 days, thus passing the year at a pace of one month on the Earth. .

Current technology is too weak to take pictures of the surface of these distant worlds, far from sending space patrols, but space telescopes can collect information about the atmosphere on exotic planets.

Research on this discovery is expected to evolve in the years to come with the launch of NASA's James Webb telescope in 2021 and the European Space Agency's Ariel mission in 2028. Observations from these telescopes will learn more about composition of the atmosphere in distant worlds, especially the existence Methane and other gases can be direct signs of life.