An exoplanet just 100 light-years away from Earth seems to be the best candidate for a world covered in water.
A density profile consistent with a global liquid ocean can be seen in the measurement of TOI 1452b. Scientists don't know if worlds like this are possible, but they think they are.
The initial results are very intriguing and we will need to follow up with observations from the James Webb Space Telescope in order to make a more confident ruling on the nature of TOI 1452b.
The discovery and characterization of the transiting exoplanet TOI 1452b was reported in a paper by a team of researchers.
The results of our interior modeling make TOI 1452b a good candidate water world.
It's easy to see why TOI 1452b didn't get detected until now.
The exoplanet was found in close proximity to a pair of red dwarfs. The two stars look like they are one.
The TESS telescope is sensitive enough to detect faint dips in starlight that are indicative of an object passing between us and our host star. The researchers used their own instrument to detect transits of planets at Mont Mégantic Observatory.
The observations from both telescopes show that there is a planet in the TOI 1452 binaries.
The researchers were able to determine that the exoplanet is small, coming in at 1.672 times the size of Earth, by looking at how much light the star emits and how dim it is when it passes in front.
It's on an elliptical path with a star that seems close to us. The exoplanet is placed in the middle of the star's temperate zone because it is so cool and dim. It is not so far from the star that any liquid water on its surface would freeze or evaporate.
The researchers looked at the star further. They looked at the way it moves due to the influence of the exoplanet. A mutual center of gravity means that any two bodies in a system are in the same location.
Calculating the body's mass can be done with the help of the changes in the star's light. They were able to derive a mass of almost five times the Earth's.
This is where things start to get interesting.
The size and mass of an object can be used to estimate its density. The density for TOI 1452b is very close to Earth's. A density similar to that of Earth indicates that the object is made of a lighter material.
One of the best candidates for an ocean planet has been identified as TOI 1452b. It's mass and radius suggest that it's not as dense as one would think for a planet made up of metal and rock.
As much as 30 percent of the exoplanet's mass could be water, according to their models.
That's a lot of water. Water makes up less than 1 percent of Earth's mass, and TOI 1452b's composition seems close to that of water moons in the vicinity of Jupiter and Enceladus.
It is not possible to say what TOI 1452b is made of. This is where we come in.
The exoplanet passes between us and its star. The star's light will travel through the exoplanet's atmosphere. Scientists can work out what's in the exoplanet's atmosphere by detecting the difference in that light.
If TOI 1452b is a water world, it's time for us to discover it.
astronomer René Doyon of the University of Montreal says that their observations with the telescope will be essential to better understanding TOI 1452b. We will book time on Webb to see this strange and wonderful world.
The research has appeared in a journal.
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