Hubble discovers all-water planet
Actresses Amber Valletta arrive at the 14th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills,
A planet made up mostly of water with a very steamy atmosphere has been observed. GJ 1214b is 2.7 times earth’s diameter and weighs seven times but much of its mass is from water and not rock. Astronomers spotted the planet through the Hubble space telescope.
They found the density to be only 2 grams per cubic centimetre (water is 1 and earth is 5.5). Such a waterworld has never been seen before.
Moreover, astronomers are baffled that so much water exists in such a hot place. The planet orbits its red dwarf star very closely, going around once in 38 hours, which gives it’s a estimated temperature of 230ºC. This is too hot for water-as we know it to exist.
“The high temperatures and high pressures would form exotic materials like ‘hot ice’ or ‘superfluid water’, substances that are completely alien to our everyday experience,” said Zachory Berta, lead astronomer from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics.
The possibility of such a planet harbouring life can be considered. Theorists have said that the planet was formed far away from the star and travelled closer to it over time. At some point they say, it could have staye dint he habitable zone, giving chances for life to thrive. How long this habitable period lasted is not clear.
The planet was seen through ground based experiments a few years ago and confirmed recently by collecting data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
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