Scientists, using NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer telescopes, have discovered two planets made of water that lie outside our solar system.
The two planets, known as “water worlds,” orbit a red dwarf star, according to a press release from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
According to the agency, the two planets are 218 light years away and are located in the constellation Lyra, and they “are different from any planets in our solar system.”
Using NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, researchers discovered three planets outside our solar system, but only two of them were made of water.
Scientists did not directly discover water in the outer planets “Kepler-138c” and “Kepler-138d”, but they compared the sizes and masses of the planets with models of other planets, and discovered that “a large part of its size consists of materials lighter than rocks but heavier than hydrogen.” Or helium.
NASA believes that this substance is the element of water, because it is lighter than rocks, but it is heavier than hydrogen or helium.
According to NASA, these planets are surrounded by a thick layer of vapor, with reference to the high temperatures on their surface.
“It is possible that the temperature in Kepler-138d’s atmosphere is higher than the boiling point of water, and we expect the presence of a dense atmospheric layer of vapor on this planet,” said study author Dr. This dense layer of vapor, potentially liquid water under high pressure, or water in another phase that is produced due to high pressure, is called liquid above the critical stage.