New Research Indicates That Water-Worlds Are Astonishingly Common Among Exoplanets


New research indicates that water-worlds are astonishingly common and that many exoplanets may actually hold vast amounts of water on them. These exoplanets, many of which are up to four times the size of Earth, have given scientists great hope when it comes to the search for life in the universe.

Exoplanets were first detected orbiting distant stars in 1992, and since then, scientists have been extremely keen to learn more about the composition of these planets to understand whether they are suitable for harboring life. After analyzing data that was taken from the Gaia mission and the Kepler Space Telescope, scientists have determined that a large number of these exoplanets may be water-worlds and hold up to 50 percent water on them, as Phys.org reported.

Harvard University’s Dr. Li Zen, who was the lead researcher behind this discovery, has called it a “huge surprise to realize that there must be so many water-worlds.”

Out of the 4,000 exoplanets that have been detected so far, scientists have slotted these into two categories of sizes. The first of these include planets that are 1.5 times the size of Earth, while the second category features those that are 2.5 times the size of our planet.

After calculating the mass and radius measurements of the exoplanets, a team of international scientists have now created a new model which has shown that the planets that are 2.5 times the size of Earth are most likely water-worlds, according to Li Zeng.

“We have looked at how mass relates to radius, and developed a model which might explain the relationship. The model indicates that those exoplanets which have a radius of around x1.5 Earth radius tend to be rocky planets (of typically x5 the mass of the Earth), while those with a radius of x2.5 Earth radius (with a mass around x10 that of the Earth) are probably water worlds.”

In fact, this new research shows that around 35 percent of these large exoplanets most likely hold large reserves of water on them and that many of these planets were created very much like Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn.

According to Li Zeng, the TESS mission should be able to locate even more of these water-world exoplanets.

“The newly-launched TESS mission will find many more of them, with the help of ground-based spectroscopic follow-up. The next generation space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, will hopefully characterize the atmosphere of some of them. This is an exciting time for those interested in these remote worlds.”

The James Webb Telescope, which is set to be launched in 2021, will allow scientists to learn more about the atmospheres of these water-world exoplanets.

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