Present It is 100 light years from Earth.
UAn international team of researchers has discovered an exoplanet completely covered in water. Also, it is relatively close, regarding 100 light years from Earth in the constellation of Draco. The exoplanet has been named TOI-1452b and is slightly larger than Earth.
TOI-1452borbits a star four times smaller than our Sun. It was discovered two years ago by the Earth’s telescope. NASA, TESS. It is estimated that it will be composed of 10% or 25% waterwhile the Earth contains less than 1%.
“TOI-1452b is one of the best candidates for life, being an oceanic planet, of the few we have found to date,” said Dr. Carlos Cadieux who led the international team. “Its radius and mass suggest a much lower density than would be expected for a planet that is composed primarily of metal and rock, like Earth,” he added.
“Some theories suggest that life originated at the bottom of the oceans, near hydrothermal vents,” explained Ren Doyon, an astrophysicist at the University of Montreal. “There is an abundance of life there. And some branches of the oldest bacteria can live in extreme environments,” he continued.
The next step is the observation of TOI 1452b by the Space Telescope James Webb, which will confirm the presence of liquid water. “We have to see if that much water can survive for a long time on planets in the habitable zone,” says Doyon.
However, the researchers noted that it is also possible that TOI-1452b not be an oceanic planet. They say it might also be a bare rock planet with an iron content less than half that of Earth, or a terrestrial planet with a thin, low-molecular-weight atmosphere.