Water, the all-dissolving ‘universal solvent’, is virtually a guaranteed sign of life, or at least of theories about it. no matter where it is located in the universe. So, for a civilization like ours, eager to discover extraterrestrial life, the existence of water, or even water vapor, anywhere in space signals the need for further investigation. Astronomers discovered an exoplanet twice the size of Earth that has water vapor in its atmosphere. The astronomers employed the Hubble Space Telescope, a dependable piece of high technology that is still performing admirably even though the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is currently the hottest thing.
The planet has been classified as GJ 9827d. The exoplanet is 97 light-years away from Earth and circles a star known as GJ 9827. The planet revolves around the red dwarf star once every 6.2 days. So in other words, a ‘year’ on the planet is shorter than a week, according to our Earthly reference points.
“This would be the first time that we can directly show through atmospheric detection, that these planets with water-rich atmospheres can exist around other stars,” said team member Björn Benneke from Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets at Université de Montréal.
“This is an important step toward determining the prevalence and diversity of atmospheres on rocky planets.” NASA quoted Benneke
Water found in atmosphere of the planet identified in 2017
The planet itself was identified in 2017, but the presence of water in its atmosphere is a recent discovery.
“Water on a planet this small is a landmark discovery,” added co-principal investigator Laura Kreidberg from Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, as quoted by NASA.
“It pushes closer than ever to characterizing truly Earth-like worlds.”
However, it is too early to say if the water is present in a ‘puffy hydrogen-rich atmosphere’ or if the planet itself contains a lot of water.
“Our observing program, led by principal investigator Ian Crossfield of Kansas University in Lawrence, Kansas, was designed specifically to not only detect the molecules in the planet’s atmosphere but to look specifically for water vapor. Either result would be exciting, whether water vapor is dominant or just a tiny species in a hydrogen-dominant atmosphere,” said the science paper’s lead author, Pierre-Alexis Roy from Trottier Institute.
“Until now, we had not been able to directly detect the atmosphere of such a small planet. And we’re slowly getting in this regime now,” added Benneke. “At some point, as we study smaller planets, there must be a transition where there’s no more hydrogen on these small worlds, and they have atmospheres more like Venus (which is dominated by carbon dioxide).”
So, is there life on this planet?
It is difficult to determine right now because it is a Venus-like planet with a high surface temperature (800°F).
However, it may be appropriate to state that ‘Life finds a way’ and that where there is water, there is (or will be) life.
Probably a relaxing thought for those pondering the unsettling issue, ‘Are we alone in the Universe?’