scientist say they ’ve discovered a planet that could be up to one-half water , make it an extreme urine world – although it might not be water like we recognize it .
The satellite orbits a smart varying star calledHD 106315 , located about 350 wakeful - years from our planet . It is one of two planets find orbiting the star by NASA ’s Kepler telescope , one ( b ) orbiting in 9.5 days and the other ( c ) orbiting in 21 .
Now , scientist led by the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Science ( IA ) in Portugal have worked out the masses of the planet using the European Southern Observatory ’s ( ESO ) La Silla telescope in Chile . We already cognise HD 106315b was 2.44 times the size of Earth and HD 106315c was 4.35 , but now we also make out the former is 12.6 times more monumental than our planet and the latter is 15.2 times more .
The findings are published in the journalAstronomy and Astrophysics .
From these values , the scientists were then capable to work out the density of the planets . The smaller b is 4.7 grams per cubic cm , while the large c is 1.01 . This suggests the latter has a thick H - helium ambiance , but the former major planet could be half rock’n’roll and 9 to 50 percent water . For comparison , Earth is just0.1 percentwater .
" Thanks to an intensive observation scheme and a advanced data analysis method acting developed by our team , we were able to determine the masses of these two satellite and the composition of major planet b , " Nuno Santos from IA , one of the discipline ’s co - authors , said in astatement .
The team were able-bodied to simulate the piece of major planet b as it ’s in all likelihood jumpy , whereas the other – being gaseous – was harder to do . However , they take note that the planet ’s law of proximity to its star and its subsequent mellow temperature of a few hundred degree Celsius could mean the water is in a “ supercritical ” phase , meaning it is half path between being a liquid and a gas .
They also note that the planet might not be such a water world at all , but or else it might be a gas planet like its familiar . Future observations will be want to find out for sure .
The brightness of the star could activate the planets to be relatively easily studied in the hereafter . This is because we ’ll be able-bodied to see the mavin ’s light pass through its standard atmosphere , allowing us to work out what it ’s made of . Future scope , like NASA’snewly delayedJames Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ) in May 2020 or the approaching Extremely heavy Telescope ( ELT ) in 2024 , will make this possible .
