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Strange alien world found to have water vapor and possibly rain clouds
NBC News ^ | Sept. 11, 2019, 1:24 PM CDT | By Chelsea Gohd

Posted on 09/11/2019 12:58:34 PM PDT by Red Badger

Exoplanet K2-18 b lies in the habitable zone of its host star some 110 light-years from Earth.

In a major first, scientists have detected water vapor and possibly even liquid water clouds that rain in the atmosphere of a strange exoplanet that lies in the habitable zone of its host star about 110 light-years from Earth.

A new study focuses on K2-18 b, an exoplanet discovered in 2015, orbits a red dwarf star close enough to receive about the same amount of radiation from its star as Earth does from our sun.

Previously, scientists have discovered gas giants that have water vapor in their atmospheres, but this is the least massive planet ever to have water vapor detected in its atmosphere. This new paper even goes so far as to suggest that the planet hosts clouds that rain liquid water.

"The water vapor detection was quite clear to us relatively early on," lead author Björn Benneke, a professor at the Institute for Research on Exoplanets at the Université de Montréal, told Space.com in an interview. So he and his colleagues developed new analysis techniques to provide evidence that clouds made up of liquid water droplets likely exist on K2-18 b. "That's in some ways the 'holy grail' of studying extrasolar planets … evidence of liquid water," he said.

This study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, was published Tuesday (Sept. 10) in the preprint journal arXiv.org.

Related: These 10 Exoplanets Could Be Home to Alien Life A weird world

Because this study has found evidence for liquid water and hydrogen in this exoplanet's atmosphere and it lies within the habitable zone, there is a possibility that this world is habitable. Previous studies have found that other gases that are vital for life as we know it in hydrogen-rich atmospheres of certain planets.

Such studies have suggested that planets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres could host certain forms of life, Benneke said. However, K2-18 b's large atmosphere is extremely thick and creates high-pressure conditions, which "likely prevents life as we know it from existing on the planet's surface," a news release reads.

So, while Benneke does not rule out the possibility that this exoplanet could, in theory, support some sort of life, there is "certainly not some animal crawling around on this planet," Benneke said. This is especially true, given the fact that "there is nothing to crawl on," because the planet doesn't really have a surface, he added. Related Space Mysterious radio bursts from space may soon have an explanation

"Most of that planet, by volume, the vast majority is this gas envelope," he said. As Benneke described, the planet is most likely some sort of core, potentially a rocky one, surrounded by a massive, hydrogen gas envelope that has some water vapor in it.

While these researchers found evidence for liquid water clouds on K2-18 b, because of its lack of surface, rain wouldn't pool on the planet. As rainfall travels through the thick gas surrounding the planet's core, it would become so warm that the water would evaporate back up into the clouds where it would condense and fall again, Benneke said.

Without a real surface, so to speak, landing on the planet would also be nearly impossible to land on, especially because the gas is so thick and has such an incredibly high pressure that any Earth-created spacecraft sent there would be destroyed.

"There are millions of bars of pressure, it would just be crushed and squeezed," Benneke said. The birth of K2-18 b?

Benneke suggests that, possibly, this planet formed by rock accreting immense amounts of gas, "like a vacuum cleaner," he said. This gas accretion would have more than doubled the planet's radius and increased its volume eightfold. (Today, for comparison, K2-18 b is about nine times as massive as Earth and about twice as large.)

To come to these conclusions, the research team analyzed data from Hubble Space Telescope observations that they made between 2016 and 2017 of the K2-18 b planet passing in front of its star eight times. This technique allows scientists to detect distinct signatures of molecules like water in a planet's atmosphere.

This team plans to expand this research even further by studying K2-18 b with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, which is set to launch in 2021.

This type of research, Benneke said, is leading toward a final goal of "being able to study real, true Earth-like planets."

"We are not quite there yet," he said, but "this is really exciting."


TOPICS: Astronomy; Education; History; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; epic201912552b; exoplanet; k218b; science; xplanets
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1 posted on 09/11/2019 12:58:34 PM PDT by Red Badger
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To: SunkenCiv

X-O Planet Ping!.....................


2 posted on 09/11/2019 12:58:57 PM PDT by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain......................)
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To: Red Badger
This artist's impression shows the planet K2-18b, its host star and an accompanying planet in this system.M. Kornmesser / ESA/Hubble
3 posted on 09/11/2019 12:59:50 PM PDT by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain......................)
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To: Red Badger

DANG! They found my home planet! We thought you guys were at least a century from this. Bummer.

I’m gonna get called home early. I might as well start packing. Gotta join the armada.


4 posted on 09/11/2019 1:01:02 PM PDT by cuban leaf (We're living in Dr. Zhivago but without the love triangle)
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To: Red Badger

Baltimore? Maybe Detroit


5 posted on 09/11/2019 1:01:44 PM PDT by Track9
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To: Track9

San Fransicko?..........................


6 posted on 09/11/2019 1:03:42 PM PDT by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain......................)
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To: Red Badger

Water vapor? Do they not realize that water vapor is essentially carbon dioxide? Holy crap.


7 posted on 09/11/2019 1:05:41 PM PDT by Go Gordon (I gave my dog Grady a last name - Trump - because he loves tweets.)
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To: Red Badger

Yikes, I’ll that place is sticky.


8 posted on 09/11/2019 1:08:29 PM PDT by Track9
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To: Track9

If you think the sidewalks are bad, just wait till you go inside a theater!.....................


9 posted on 09/11/2019 1:09:43 PM PDT by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain......................)
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To: Red Badger
Most of that planet, by volume, the vast majority is this gas envelope

The news just keeps getting worse and worse about this nightmare world. No, not a place for "us," even in the far distant future when we may be able to travel such distances.

10 posted on 09/11/2019 1:10:15 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: Red Badger

Yeah, but I bet it doesn’t have Global Warming!


11 posted on 09/11/2019 1:17:53 PM PDT by Tallguy (Facts be d@mned! The narrative must be protected at all costs!)
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To: LibWhacker

I was surprised to learn that the rings of Saturn contain huge amounts of water. And that they lose the water as “rain” of sorts that falls to the planet.

In spite of having water, I think Saturn is probably still not going to become the vacation spot of the universe.


12 posted on 09/11/2019 1:20:59 PM PDT by 21twelve (!)
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To: Red Badger

Gas giant...you mean like Jerry Nadler?


13 posted on 09/11/2019 1:27:47 PM PDT by Fresh Wind (The Electoral College is the firewall protecting us from massive blue state vote fraud.)
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To: Red Badger

They found water so it must be a better place than here/s


14 posted on 09/11/2019 1:31:37 PM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: Red Badger

If they had water in Frisco perhaps they could wash the $hit off the streets


15 posted on 09/11/2019 1:51:56 PM PDT by Vaquero ( Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Fresh Wind

He’s a GAS BAG!........................


16 posted on 09/11/2019 1:52:18 PM PDT by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain......................)
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To: Red Badger
While these researchers found evidence for liquid water clouds on K2-18 b, because of its lack of surface, rain wouldn't pool on the planet. As rainfall travels through the thick gas surrounding the planet's core, it would become so warm that the water would evaporate back up into the clouds where it would condense and fall again, Benneke said.

So in reality, they haven't found a planet with water. But beyond that, using one of the fastest space crafts ever developed, the Voyager 1 space probe, it would take roughly 1,736,809 years to travel 100 light years, traveling at its maximum velocity of 38,612 mph. We would still be 173,681 years away. The entire 1 way trip would be 1,910,490 years.

17 posted on 09/11/2019 1:56:07 PM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: Robert DeLong

I’ll wait.......................


18 posted on 09/11/2019 2:00:49 PM PDT by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain......................)
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To: Red Badger

Well it should pass quickly for you once you go into that long deep sleep. 8>)


19 posted on 09/11/2019 2:09:04 PM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: Robert DeLong

Class M planets are the habitable ones...just ask Kirk, Picard or Janeway.


20 posted on 09/11/2019 2:10:00 PM PDT by JimRed ( TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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