Researchers say they have observed a Neptune-like planet that could be covered by a deep-water ocean, The Guardian reported.A team from the University of Cambridge said it had found evidence of water vapor and chemical signatures of carbon dioxide and methane on an exoplanet known as “TOI-270 d,” which is about 73 light years away.The team used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to make observations of the planet, which has twice the radius of Earth and a mass of 4.78 Earths, NASA reported.Nikku Madhusudhan, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Cambridge who led the research, told the Guardian, “The ocean could be upwards of 100 degrees [Celsius] or more,” adding that with high atmospheric pressure, that ocean could still be liquid.But he said it was “not clear if it would be habitable.”The planet is also tidally locked, meaning one side is left in constant darkness while the other faces its star, the report says.”The ocean would be extremely hot on the day side. The night side could potentially host habitable conditions,” Madhusudhan added.
A liquid ocean is the preferred premise set out in a paper published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.The paper also notes the lack of ammonia on TOI-270 d, which it said was “consistent with predictions for a Hycean world with a planet-wide ocean” under a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.But a group of Canadian researchers who also observed TOI-270 d have disputed the Cambridge team’s claims.While they detected the same chemicals in the planet’s atmosphere, one of the researchers told the Guardian that they believed the temperature was “too warm for water to be liquid.”Björn Benneke, a professor at the Université de Montréal, said that surface temperatures on the exoplanet could be around 4,000 degrees Celsius, or about 7,200 degrees Fahrenheit.He added that this meant any water could be in a supercritical state, where “it’s almost like a thick, hot fluid.”
The Crab Nebula photographed by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Tea Temim (Princeton University)
The James Webb Space Telescope has played a key role in advancing the search for habitable planets beyond Earth.The telescope intercepts infrared light and directs it to scientific instruments to record the light.One of its main uses is to study the atmospheres of exoplanets to see whether they could support life.One key piece of data scientists look for in potentially habitable planets is liquid water.The area around a star where water can exist as liquid is called the “habitable zone” or “Goldilocks zone.” Planets in this zone are neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water.
