Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com news on December 17, 1992 is the United Nations International year of Outer Space International Space Year, the theme is "International Cooperation in the peaceful use of Outer Space." That year, scientists discovered a planet outside the solar system for the first time, opening a new way for mankind to explore space: the search for an alien world.

Since then, scientists have successfully classified and studied thousands of exoplanets that tell people so clearly how rare and gentle the planet we live on in the corners of the universe.

In the world beyond Earth, there are jewel-like showers, hellish lava lakes, ice cliffs that never melt, and of course some Earth-like planets with unlimited potential to give birth to extraterrestrial life.

We have once again delved into the alien world and discovered two water-filled exoplanets, Kepler-138c and Kepler-138d, using the NASA Hubble Space Telescope and the retired Spitzer Space Telescope, a group of exoplanet hunters announced in the journal Nature Astronomy on Thursday.

Technically, the two exoplanets being studied were discovered by the NASA Kepler space telescope in the past (hence the name), but scientists have not confirmed the composition of these planets until now.

The two blue stars, located 218 light-years away in a star system, dance around a dim red dwarf star, about 1.5 times the size of Earth and about twice the mass of Earth. "like an enlarged version of Earth, that's why we call them super-Earth." Said Bj ö rn Benneke, a professor at the University of Montreal and co-author of the paper.

In fact, NASA's online exoplanet catalogue calls Kepler d a "potentially rocky world". "however, we have now proved that the two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are completely different in nature: a large part of their entire star may be made up of water." He added.

Simply put, this is the first time that an exoplanet has been identified as a "water world" by scientists, Benneke said. It is a planet that has existed in astronomy for a long time in theory but has not yet been confirmed. It is worth mentioning that these so-called "water worlds" are not the ones with oceans as in Interstellar.

The aquifer of Kepler-138 d is thought to be at a depth of 2000 kilometres. By contrast, the average depth of the earth's oceans is less than 4 kilometers, and the proportion of liquid water is negligible. Source: Benoit Gougeon, University of Montreal "Kepler 138 c and d atmosphere temperatures may be higher than the boiling point of water, and we expect dense atmospheres of steam to exist on these planets," said team leader and PhD Caroline Piolet (Caroline Piaulet).

"only in this steam environment can there be high-pressure liquid water, or even water in another phase under high pressure, which is called supercritical fluid."

Researchers believe the Kepler twins are more like magnified Europa or Enceladus, the water-rich moons currently orbiting Jupiter and Saturn, but closer to their stars. "Kepler 138 c and d will have a lot of water vapor blankets rather than cold rock surfaces," Piolet said. "

Observers have also discovered a possible new Kepler 138 planet: Kepler-138 e, CTOnews.com cautioned. Most interestingly, Kepler-138 e seems to be in the livable zone. Time should tell us what this means for the magical universe.

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