For a long time, scientists have wondered if there was a planet that included water. A planet with the hope of life. A planet where there are living beings. With the new studies, they found out that their dreams might have a chance to come true because of their new discovery of a water-based planet.
Even though having water on some other planet does not mean that there are living creatures on the planet, it is very important to progress in order to discover more about the “aliens” and if they actually exist. And even if they don’t exist, this discovery is groundbreaking because of the fact that water is the most important need in our lives.
According to a recent announcement, scientists believe that they discovered a new exoplanet, a planet that does not orbit the Sun. The exoplanet TOI-1452 b is approximately at Earth’s size and stays in a solar system where liquid water exists. Even though some of Saturn and Jupiter’s moons were thought that they were water-based, no such planets have been confirmed to include water. But this new planet is very likely to be the first confirmed planet that includes water in its land.
With NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, scientists can discover a lot of new planets, galaxies, and even black holes. And they have discovered more than 5,000 exoplanets, even though it is very hard to discover exoplanets because the light of their stars can block them out. NASA and MIT collaborated to launch a new device to address this significant issue. The device is called the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and it was launched in 2018.
The first gleam of hope of the presence of this new water world happened because of TESS. To our knowledge, the planet TOI-1452 b is located in the Draco constellation. The Draco constellation can be counted as a “neighbor” to us since the distance between it and the Earth is only about 100 light years.
The reason that TOI-1452 b got detected is its stars. This unbelievable source of water was detected by NASA’s space telescope TESS when it passed in front of one of its stars. The image that TESS detected had a dimmed star - the dangerous part about dimmed stars is that they are very likely to cause a massive explosion - and it suggested that there would be an orbit that obscures the star’s light. And they were right. This observation revealed this groundbreaking planet.
At first, scientists did not know that the planet was a “water world”. To make sure about it, they needed to calculate this planet’s mass. The planet was very light. And this new information leads to a new outcome. Earth and Saturn are rocky planets that are very dense due to their rough surface. But this new planet was not dense. Scientists only had one explanation for this situation. This new planet may be made of lighter materials, and the first light material that comes to mind is water.
Our source of freshwater is in danger to run out soon or later and there is not even a slight chance that we can survive living without fresh water. A lot of people are trying to get more conscious about water and how the possibility of running out of fresh water is a serious danger for the human race, but still, it his hard to prevent the inevitable conclusion so this discovery was a relief.
This discovery can be one of the most important discoveries of our time, as it also gives us hope: the hope of life. And yes, this may be too soon to dream or hope, but still, the idea of a planet with water is magnificent and reminds us about the universe and how huge it is.
Works Cited
"Scientists discover colossal ocean may completely cover this planet." Mashable, mashable.com/article/space-water-ocean-world-discovered-science.
"Scientists Think This 'Ocean Planet' Is A World Completely Covered In Water." Screenrant, screenrant.com/new-ocean-planet-covered-with-water-discovery/.
"Water World: Astronomers Discover an Extrasolar World That May Be Entirely Covered in a Deep Ocean." Scitechdaily, scitechdaily.com/water-world-astronomers-discover-an-extrasolar-world-that-may-be-entirely-covered-in-a-deep-ocean/.