[The Epoch Times, December 20, 2022](The Epoch Times reporter Linda compiled a report) According to NASA’s research using the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes, two distant planets may be made of water. They are unlike any planet in the solar system.
According to a press release from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the two “water worlds” are orbiting a red dwarf star 218 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. Red dwarfs are the smallest and coldest type of star.
The study, published Dec. 15 in the journal Nature Astronomy, found that the two planets are likely composed primarily of water. A research team led by Caroline Piaulet, a doctoral student at the Université de Montréal’s Institute for Exoplanets, used NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes to observe the distant planetary system.
This planetary system is known as Kepler-138 because it lies within the field of view of NASA’s Kepler spacecraft. Researchers already knew of three exoplanets in the Kepler-138 system (Kepler-138b, Kepler-138c, Kepler-138d), but only recently discovered that two of them may be made of water.
Scientists have not directly detected water on the exoplanets Kepler-138c and Kepler-138d. Instead, they modeled the size and mass of the planets for comparison.
When they compared the planet to the model, they found that a significant fraction of its volume—up to half—should be made of materials that are lighter than rock but heavier than hydrogen or helium. NASA said it was likely water.
“We previously thought that planets that were slightly larger than Earth were larger spheres of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, which is why they were called super-Earths,” said co-author of the study, University of Montreal Astrophysics Professor Björn Benneke said so at the launch. “However, it has now been shown that these two planets, Kepler-138c and d, are qualitatively quite different, and that a substantial part of their entire volume may consist of water.”
“This is the best evidence to date for water worlds, a class of planets that astronomers have long believed should theoretically exist,” Benneker continued.
The high temperatures on these planets mean they may be enveloped in atmospheres made of water vapor, according to NASA.
“Kepler-138d’s atmosphere is likely to be hotter than the boiling point of water, and we expect the planet to have a dense atmosphere of steam,” Piolet said in the release. “It’s just that under this steam atmosphere, there may be high-pressure liquid water, and there may even be another phase of water under high pressure, called supercritical fluid.” ◇#
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