{"id":14758,"date":"2024-01-28T12:54:38","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T12:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/28\/astronomers-make-unprecedented-discovery-in-search-for-water-in-space\/"},"modified":"2024-01-28T12:54:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T12:54:38","slug":"astronomers-make-unprecedented-discovery-in-search-for-water-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/28\/astronomers-make-unprecedented-discovery-in-search-for-water-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomers make unprecedented discovery in search for water in space"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have detected water molecules in the atmosphere of a small, blazing-hot exoplanet 97 light-years from Earth. <\/p>\n

The planet, named GJ 9827d, is about twice Earth\u2019s diameter, and it\u2019s the smallest exoplanet found to have water vapor in its atmosphere, according to a new study. <\/p>\n

Water is essential for life as we know it, but the planet is unlikely to host any type of life due to searing temperatures that would turn a water-rich atmosphere into scorching steam. <\/p>\n

The astronomers have yet to uncover the true nature of this unusual world\u2019s atmosphere, but the revelation paves the way for further investigation as they seek to understand the origins of planets beyond our solar system. <\/p>\n

The findings appeared in a report published Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. <\/p>\n

\u201cWater on a planet this small is a landmark discovery,\u201d said study coauthor Laura Kreidberg, managing director of the atmospheric physics of exoplanets department at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, in a statement. \u201cIt pushes closer than ever to characterizing truly Earth-like worlds.\u201d <\/p>\n

Yet the planet reaches temperatures of 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius), making it a steamy, inhospitable world that\u2019s as hot as Venus. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis would be the first time that we can directly show through an atmospheric detection, that these planets with water-rich atmospheres can actually exist around other stars,\u201d said study coauthor Bj\u00f6rn Benneke, professor at the University of Montreal\u2019s Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets, in a statement. \u201cThis is an important step toward determining the prevalence and diversity of atmospheres on rocky planets.\u201d <\/p>\n

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<\/span> Astronomers offer an explosive origin theory for giant odd radio circles in space<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Currently, the research team can\u2019t tell whether Hubble picked up on water vapor traces within a puffy, hydrogen-rich atmosphere or the planet has a water-rich atmosphere because the host star evaporated GJ 9827d\u2019s original hydrogen and helium atmosphere. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur observing program, led by principal investigator Ian Crossfield of (the University of Kansas) in Lawrence, Kansas, was designed specifically with the goal to not only detect the molecules in the planet\u2019s atmosphere, but to actually look specifically for water vapor,\u201d said lead study author Pierre-Alexis Roy, a doctoral student at the University of Montreal\u2019s Trottier Institute, in a statement. \u201cEither result would be exciting, whether water vapor is dominant or just a tiny species in a hydrogen-dominant atmosphere.\u201d <\/p>\n

A planetary conundrum<\/h3>\n

NASA\u2019s Kepler mission initially discovered the planet orbiting a red dwarf star in the Pisces constellation in 2017. The exoplanet completes a single orbit around its host star every 6.2 days. <\/p>\n

Astronomers observed GJ 9827d during 11 transits, or times when the planet crossed in front of its star during orbit, over three years. Starlight filtering through the planet\u2019s atmosphere helped astronomers measure the signature of water molecules. <\/p>\n

\u201cUntil now, we had not been able to directly detect the atmosphere of such a small planet. And we\u2019re slowly getting in this regime now,\u201d Benneke said. \u201cAt some point, as we study smaller planets, there must be a transition where there\u2019s no more hydrogen on these small worlds, and they have atmospheres more like Venus (which is dominated by carbon dioxide).\u201d <\/p>\n

Understanding more about the planet\u2019s atmosphere could help astronomers classify exactly what type of world GJ 9827d is. Currently, the team has two possible theories. <\/p>\n

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<\/span> Saturn\u2019s moon Titan has disappearing \u2018magic islands\u2019 that may be clumps of organic material<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s possible that the planet is a mini-Neptune with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere that contains water vapor. If so, GJ 9827d likely formed at a greater distance from the host star than its current location, meaning the planet was colder and water was present in the form of ice (similar to Neptune and Uranus, the most distant planets in our solar system). <\/p>\n

As the planet migrated closer to its star and was blasted with more stellar radiation, the hydrogen heated up and escaped, or it\u2019s still escaping, according to the researchers. <\/p>\n

Or astronomers suspect that GJ 9827d could be a warmer version of Jupiter\u2019s icy moon Europa, which contains an ocean beneath a thick, icy crust. The planet might be half water and half rock, Benneke said. <\/p>\n

The search for water in space<\/h3>\n

Water is one of the most common molecules found across the universe, and for years, astronomers have included water detection as a larger part of the search for life beyond Earth. <\/p>\n

\u201cObserving water is a gateway to finding other things,\u201d said study coauthor Thomas Greene, astrophysicist at NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center in California\u2019s Silicon Valley, in a statement. \u201cThis Hubble discovery opens the door to future study of these types of planets by the James Webb Space Telescope. JWST can see much more with additional infrared observations, including carbon-bearing molecules like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane. Once we get a total inventory of a planet\u2019s elements, we can compare those to the star it orbits and understand how it was formed.\u201d <\/p>\n

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<\/span> The moon has entered a new epoch, scientists say<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Astronomers have already observed GJ 9827d with the Webb telescope to search for water and other types of molecules, and that data will be shared in the future. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can hardly wait to see what those data reveal,\u201d Kreidberg said. \u201cHopefully, we can now settle the question of water worlds once and for all.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have detected water molecules in the atmosphere of a small, blazing-hot exoplanet 97 light-years from Earth. The planet, named GJ 9827d, is about twice Earth\u2019s diameter, and it\u2019s the smallest exoplanet found to have water vapor in its atmosphere, according to a new study. Water is essential for life <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}