A latest study indicates that water is present in exoplanets, yet is lesser than what has been predicted and expected by Scientists. According to researchers, this new discovery may give light to how these planets are really shaped, along with the planets of our own solar system.
Data collected by Scientists from both space and ground telescopes, took a careful look at 19 exoplanets atmospheres. The temperatures of these exoplanets widely ranges from 20°C to 2000°C.
According to Nikku Madhusudhan, who is an astrophysicist from the University of Cambridge, the sizes of little Neptunes were 10 times the Earth’s mass and huge Jupiters were 600 times the Earth’s mass at a minimum. Found in 14 out of 19 different worlds, scientists see the presence of water vapor in these planets.
Aside from water, sodium and potassium were also detected in the atmosphere of huge exoplanets. Though these elements were in line with the Scientists expectations concerning its amounts, water vapor amounts were lower than expected.
Previous studies suggested that high amounts of specific elements aside from carbon are expected to be in huge planets’ atmospheres, including oxygen. Oxygen is considered as one of the highly abundant elements found in the cosmos next to hydrogen along with helium. For that reason, water was predicted to be more as oxygen is strongly connected to water and can hardly be separated from it.
Without water there is no life, so knowing that water is significantly lesser in other planets suggests that the chances of living outside the Earth are somewhat impossible. According to Madhusudhan, Earth really doesn’t have even that much water mass. Therefore, discoveries regarding lower masses of water in exoplanets aren’t really bad news concerning its potential in being habitable.
Currently, researchers are aiming to study other exoplanets to investigate if the same pattern can be detected.