• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Rocky planet 124 light years away ‘could have right conditions to sustain life’

It's just over twice the size of Earth and orbits within its star's habitable zone - meaning it could be a 'waterworld' of vast lakes and seas

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
2020-02-27 02:11
in News, Science
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

A rocky planet 124 light years away could have the right conditions to sustain life, say scientists.

It’s just over twice the size of Earth and orbits within its star’s habitable zone – meaning it could be a ‘waterworld’ of vast lakes and seas.

The ‘exoplanet’ has been named K2-18b, and is about 727 trillion [trillion = a million million] miles from us – a relative ‘short hop’ in cosmic terms but much too far to send a probe.

State-of-the-art space telescopes could discover if its hydrogen-rich atmosphere contains gases from alien organisms – before the decade is out.

Computer models suggest an ocean world – with liquid water below the atmosphere at pressures and temperatures similar to those found in our seas.

Last autumn two different teams of astronomers detected water vapour encircling the exoplanet.

Now a new analysis has shown despite its size the ‘hydrogen envelope’ is not too thick.

It means the water layer could have the right conditions to support life, say the Cambridge University team.

They confirmed the atmosphere is hydrogen-rich with a significant amount of water vapour.

RelatedPosts

Death toll rises to 2,300 after powerful earthquake hits Turkey and Syria

RMT secures free travel for 5,800 TfL cleaners

Mike Galsworthy responds to Daily Mail’s ‘dinner with a Rejoiner’ crib sheet

Truss to step back into political limelight

But levels of other chemicals such as methane and ammonia were lower than expected.

The next generation of space telescopes being launched this decade will be able to investigate if this is down to biological processes.

Lead author Dr Nikku Madhusudhan, of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University, said: “Water vapour has been detected in the atmospheres of a number of exoplanets but, even if the planet is in the habitable zone, that doesn’t necessarily mean there are habitable conditions on the surface.

“To establish the prospects for habitability, it’s important to obtain a unified understanding of the interior and atmospheric conditions on the planet – in particular, whether liquid water can exist beneath the atmosphere.”

The researchers determined the composition and structure of both the atmosphere and interior for the first time using existing observations of the atmosphere.

They used detailed numerical and statistical models and took into account its radius and mass. These are 2.6 and 8.6 times greater than Earth’s, respectively.

K2-18b is in a planet category known as a “super Earth” – and has a temperature cool enough to have liquid water, between zero and 40C.

But given its size it’s been suggested it’s more like a small Neptune than a large Earth.

This is likely to have a significant hydrogen ‘envelope’ surrounding a layer of high-pressure water – with an inner core of rock and iron.

If the hydrogen envelope is too thick, the temperature and pressure at the surface of the water layer beneath would be far too great to support life.

But the latest findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, shows that is not the case.

Co-author Matthew Nixon, a PhD student at the Institute, said: “We wanted to know the thickness of the hydrogen envelope – how deep the hydrogen goes.

“While this is a question with multiple solutions, we’ve shown you don’t need much hydrogen to explain all the observations together.”

The researchers found the maximum extent of the hydrogen envelope allowed by the data is around six per cent of the planet’s mass – though most of the solutions require much less.

The minimum amount of hydrogen is about one-millionth by mass – similar to the mass fraction of the Earth’s atmosphere.

In particular a “number of scenarios allow for an ocean world,” said the researchers.

The study will also enable the search for habitable conditions and signs of life on planets outside the solar system that are much bigger than Earth – beyond Earth-like exoplanets.

Additionally, planets such as K2-18b are more accessible to atmospheric observations with current and future facilities.

The techniques used by the Cambridge experts can be refined further by using future observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

The much anticipated space-based observatory is being launched next year to accelerate the search for alien life

Content Protection by DMCA.com

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Wetherspoons expecting losses of around £30 million for the year

CEO pay around 117 times that of the average UK full-time worker

Protests: What are they good for?

Greta Thunberg hits out at UK’s ‘so-called green revolution’ over banned bee-killing pesticide

Italy shouldn’t be in the Six Nations

Furlough: Sunak’s wealthy wife claimed up to £100,000 of taxpayer’s money

Pep: ‘It is not sport if success is guaranteed or it doesn’t matter if you lose’

People saying same thing as Paul Burrell criticises Meghan and Harry interview

The Bleecker Black returns, for one day only

Weather forecast, alerts and UVB index for London, Tuesday 6 April 2021

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.