Forty light years from Earth is a huge planet made up mostly of water and surrounded by a dense atmosphere of steam. The composition of this strange aquatic world has been analyzed by a team of researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
This aquatic planet, called GJ1214b, was discovered in 2009 and is the first known to have these characteristics. "It does not resemble any known planet so far," explains Zachory Berta, author of the work, "a large part of its mass is made of water." In addition, scientists have explained that due to high pressures and temperatures, exotic materials such as hot ice or superfluid water could form on this exoplanet.
Scientists have taken advantage of the moment when GJ1214b crossed in front of its star since the light from it, filtering through its atmosphere, can reveal the composition of the gases that contain it. The results, published in The Astrophysical Journal , have confirmed that the thick haze that covers the exoplanet was not simple mist, but water vapor.
The diameter of this aquatic planet is almost three times that of Earth, and its mass is seven times greater. Astronomers have estimated that this super-earth has a density of about 2 grams per cubic centimeter, much lower than that of Earth, indicating that there is much more water and less rocks in GJ1214b than on our planet.
