Water vapor was previously discovered on the smaller exoplanet, HAT-P-11b, roughly the size of Neptune in the constellation Cygnus, also 120 light years away.īut scientists are excited by the revelation, even though they caution it does not necessarily mean the planet could support life. It would not be the first time Nasa has found indications of water on other planets.
“Upcoming Webb observations should be able to confirm if DMS is indeed present in the atmosphere of K2-18 b at significant levels,” said Nikku Madhusudhan, a University of Cambridge astronomer and lead author of the Nasa research. The presence of DMS, however, is still to be confirmed, and requires further investigation. “The bulk of the DMS in Earth’s atmosphere is emitted from phytoplankton in marine environments,” the Nasa press release said. “The abundance of methane and carbon dioxide, and shortage of ammonia, support the hypothesis that there may be a water ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere in K2-18 b,” it said.īut the agency also hinted at even more remarkable possibility in the potential finding of a molecule called dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which on Earth is only produced by life. The space agency said that its observations of the chemical makeup of the planet’s atmosphere suggested the possibility of an ocean world. Almost nine times the mass of Earth, it is, Nasa, says: “a Hycean exoplanet, one which has the potential to possess a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and a water ocean-covered surface”.
Researchers have named the exoplanet K2-18 b, an unremarkable moniker for something with such potential significance.
The “intriguing” discovery was made by the space agency’s James Webb telescope, peering 120 light years from Earth in the constellation Leo, building on earlier studies of the region using Webb’s predecessors, Hubble and Kepler.
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