Scientists Found Water On Another Planet In Habitable Zone

Scientists Found Another Planet- Water Exist 

The University of College London (UCL) scientist found the another planet after long year research, which is the biggest planet and double the size of Earth.

NASA also confirms via Tweet "A planetary first! Researchers detected signs of water vapor in the atmosphere of a faraway planet in the "habitable zone," where liquid water could potentially pool."

According to scientist research paper, an exoplanet (planets present outside the solar system) called K2-18b has traces of water. It is suggested that K2-18b is the first-ever exoplanet with water found on it. The presence of water makes it the “most habitable exoplanet known to us.

"Report the detection of a spectroscopic signature of water in the atmo-sphere of K2-18 b—a planet of eight Earth masses in the habitable zone

As per analysis resulted in the detection of an atmosphere around K2-18 b with an Atmospheric Detectability Index5 (ADI; a positively defined loga-rithmic Bayes factor) of 5.0, or approximately 3.6σ confidence8,9, making K2-18 b the first habitable-zone planet in the super-Earth mass regime (1–10 M⊕) with an observed atmosphere around it."

“This is the only planet outside the solar system that has the correct temperature to support water and has an atmosphere that has water in it, making this planet the best candidate for habitability that we know right now,” said Angelos Tsiaras, an astronomer at University College London.

The lead scientist, Prof Giovanna Tinetti of University College London (UCL), described the new discovery as "mind blowing".

"This is the first time that we have detected water on a planet in the habitable zone around a star where the temperature is potentially compatible with the presence of life," she said.

Its temperature between 0 to 40 degree Celsius, that is enough to have water.

K2-18b distance 111 light years about 650 million million miles from Earth probably.

What is an Exoplanet?

• Planets beyond our Solar System are called exoplanets.
• The first exoplanet was discovered in 1992, orbiting a pulsar (a neutron star that emits electromagnetic radiation).
• More than 4,000 have been detected to date using several techniques.
• Many of these worlds are large planets believed to resemble Jupiter or Neptune.
• Many giant planets have been found orbiting very close to their stars.

Source: BBC, Nature

Image Source- NASA Twitter