2024-01-26 23:00:00
The Hubble Space Telescope has observed the smallest known planet outside the solar system that contains water in its atmosphere The atmosphere, according to what the American space agencies (NASA) and the European space agencies announced Thursday.
Research co-director Laura Kreidberg from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany explained: “ Observing water on such a small planet is a historic discovery, and brings it closer than ever “One of the worlds that truly resemble Earth has passed away.”
falling planetGJ 9827dOn which water was observed, whose diameter is regarding twice the diameter of the Earth in the constellation Pisces, in the distance 97 light years, or more than 900 thousand billion kilometers, according to a statement issued by NASA and the space agency European.
Officials of the two agencies believed that this planet is similar to either a “mini Neptune” with an atmosphere rich in hydrogen and filled with With water, or a warmer version of Jupiter’s moon Europa, which contains twice as much water under its crust Water under the Earth’s crust.
Björn Beinecke of the University of Montreal, who co-led the research, noted:GJ 9827d“It may be made up equally of water and rock.” He suggested that there was “a lot of water vapor on the small rocky masses.”
He added: “Before today, we were not able to directly monitor the atmosphere of such a small planet, and we… We will achieve this gradually.”
For three years, Hubble succeeded in analyzing the wavelength of colors in the atmosphere of a planetGJ 9827dwhen the light from the star it orbits around filters through its atmosphere, and was able to discover The presence of water molecules.
Although this planet has an atmosphere rich in water, its temperature of 425 degrees Celsius makes it Not fit for life.
However, this discovery paves the way for further studies on the planetGJ 9827dAnd similar planets, especially with the James Webb Space Telescope, which can use its high-resolution images Infrared radiation to search for other atmospheric molecules such as carbon dioxide and methane.
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