This is really interesting.
Over 5,000 exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system, have been found, and it is thought there are more than a trillion exoplanets in the universe. Scientists think there are two water worlds. Up to half of the planets' mass could be made up of water.
That is big. Earth is a relatively dry place as just one percent of our planet's mass is water.
It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was thought to exist for a long time. The research was published in a scientific journal.
The planets are named after NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, which discovered thousands of exoplanets and changed our understanding of what lies beyond our solar system. The European Space Agency said that the two water worlds are unlike any planets in our Solar System.
These planets were discovered by the telescope. Astronomers looked deeper at these worlds with the Hubble Space Telescope. The exoplanets were found to be three times the size of Earth but less massive. It's interesting that planets a little larger than Earth seem to be rocky worlds. The ice-covered moons in our solar system are very similar to Jupiter's Enceladus and the other ice-covered moons in our solar system. The moons' frozen shells are thought to cause oceans to move under them.
The ice-clad moons are exposed to less heat energy than the other two.
"Imagine larger versions of Enceladus, the water-rich moons around Jupiter and Saturn, but brought much closer to their star," said a scientist at the Institute for Research on Exoplanets at the University of Montreal. They would have large water-vapour envelopes instead of ice. Water in the air is referred to as water-vapour envelopes. The atmosphere of Kepler-138 d is very hot.
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Water was not directly identified in these latest observations. The European Space Agency says that simulations show that these worlds are made of materials that are heavier than hydrogen or helium. Water is the most common material for candidates.
"It is the best evidence yet for water worlds."
The most powerful space telescope in existence will be able to peer at these water worlds. The atmospheres of distant exoplanets are revealed by the telescope. A distant world's clouds can be detected using equipment called spectrometers.
As the water worlds show, the surprises have already begun. According to Mercedes Lpez-Morales, an exoplanet researcher and astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics-Harvard & Smithsonian, we might learn things we didn't think about.
Stay on top of what's happening next.
According to a researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the James Webb Space Telescope is the key to unveil the atmospheric composition of the water world. It will allow us to compare the composition of the icy moons of the solar system with that of their bigger and heavier counterparts.
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