According to a recent survey of exoplanets around red dwarf stars, there’s a rise in the population of water worlds. Apparently, we may have underestimated how much wetter the Milky Way galaxy is.
What’s more curious is that the newly found water worlds could contain up to 50 % water. Read out below for all the cool facts.
Water Worlds, New Possibilities, and a Brighter Future
It was a surprise to see evidence for so many water worlds orbiting the most common type of star in the galaxy, says astronomer Rafael Luque of the University of Chicago.
Red dwarf stars are thought to make up 73 % of the Milky Way’s stellar population. That’s more than we can imagine!
But if you think that’s really cool, there’s more.
Scientists have been able to come across hundreds of tiny planets orbiting those small stars as a result of the more sophisticated instruments. The findings are genuinely intriguing.
More Insights
A study of the density of 43 exoplanets circling red dwarf stars was carried out by Luque and Enric Palle, an astronomer from the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands and the University of La Laguna, Spain. They succeeded in discovering something odd: exoplanets too thick to be gassy but not completely dense to be just rocky, either.
How’s that possible?
The researchers believe that those mid-sized exoplanets were somehow combined with something light we’re all aware of, like water. But there’s a catch.
The planets in question are actually too near to their stars for liquid water to exist on their grounds.
If the team’s results turn out to be accurate, the discovery shows that those cool water worlds could not have developed where they did. Of course, more data is needed to figure out everything and solve this puzzle.
Luckily, we possess the proper instruments for future missions!
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