Astronomers have found an Earth-like, bigger planet that could have deeper oceans and two sons.
Do you ever think about what possibilities our Solar System holds? Like, are we really that different? Or alone? The discovery of Earth-like planets is now more accurate than we thought before, and the recent finding is proof of that.
Read out below to find out all the intriguing facts.
A Waterworld With Many Secret Awaits
A planet with a potentially massive ocean has been identified. What’s more intriguing is that it’s a planet similar to ours. And that’s not all!
TOI-1452b, the new planet in question, is about 100 light years away from us and orbits two stars. It’s also 70 % bigger and nearly five times as massive as Earth, and scientists believe that the planet’s density is consistent with a deep ocean. Actually, not deep. Deeper oceans!
Study insights
The discovery was made by an international team of researchers guided by the University of Montreal, using ground-based telescopes and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
The team came up with simulations to show how TOI-1452b is actually an ocean world (30 % of its mass is water). To get a picture of it, imagine that just 1 % of Earth’s mass is made up of the planet’s 70 % water areas.
Quite spectacular, isn’t it?
Of course, the researchers need to make additional observations to demonstrate the existence of water conclusively. It may even be a rocky planet with a helium-rich and hydrogen atmosphere.
NASA offered more details, releasing a statement:
That proportion is comparable to watery moons in our solar system Jupiter’s Ganymede and Callisto, or Saturn’s Titan and Enceladus believed to hide deep oceans under shells of ice.
What’s even curious is that the Earth-like planet goes around its star in only 11 days, so a year there is just 11 days long!
Now, researchers turn to the James Webb Space Telescope to explore the planet in detail.